Colossus IV : Requiem
by Sammy23.4
Summary: Trailer on YouTube
1. Slumville

_**I know it's been ages and ages since I last put Colossus up. I'd tell you what's been taking up all of my time but I doutb you'd actually want to know. Anyway, here is the first few chapters of Requiem. :)**_

_**Klatovy**_

_**Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia**_

_**September 9th**_

_**1941 A.D.**_

Nazi SS troops rolled down the street outside in truck whilst others simply stood on street corners, some lighting cigarettes and laughing about something. Probably the Allies poor attempts to fight them off. The laughter could be heard inside the empty inn, where only the sound of a grandfather clock stopped it from being total silence.

The Nazi occupation was of no concern for two of the patrons though. They had business to discuss.

The man had slightly messy shoulder length blond hair and a large heavy trench coat on, whilst the woman, who had received several wolf whistles from Nazi troops, seemed to glow even in the dreariness of the Inn.

"You don't strike me as a very charitable woman," he remarked. He sounded slightly German or maybe Russian.

"I'm not. I have my interests to protect, just as you have yours," she stated.

"And what are your interests?"

"My continued survival of course. It's a very dangerous world."

"Yes it is," he smiled. He had a very handsome look when he was acting friendly, "but you still haven't said what you want in exchange for this information."

"I want assurances," she said simply.

"Assurances?"

"When you come to power, I will remain under your continued protection."

"You also do not strike me as the type of woman that needs protection," he grinned again, "I've heard about your kind."

This time Sophia returned a smile. "If I was all powerful, I wouldn't be here talking to you."

"Maybe this is some kind of trick. A setup. I've heard that your kind can get inside peoples minds without using a wand. I've heard that the Führer himself is very interested in your kind."

"You believe everything you hear?"

"I pay attention to the gossip," he smirked.

"As you should. And what makes you think that I don't have a deal worked out with the Führer already?" she asked.

"It wouldn't surprise me if you did. I know your type. You play all sides for your own benefits," he remarked.

"My benefits? That's where you're wrong. I do nothing for myself."

"Really? I find that hard to believe. Allying yourself with Hitler is proof that -"

"Hitlers regime will fail," she cut him off, "the cracks are already starting to show themselves in his foundations. The Allies will unites and destroy him. But...for the moment, his cooperation is necessary. As is yours."

"So, I'm just a pawn in your grand chess game."

"Actually, I plan to make you a King. When Germany falls and the Allies are exhausted from fighting, you will be in a prime position to take control. All you need is an ace in the hole, so to speak," she said.

"And what ace in the hole can you offer me?"

"What do you know about the Elder Wand?" she smiled.

Grindelwald leaned towards her with his eyes full of excitement. "I think the question is...what do you know about the Elder Wand?"

"Ever heard of the wandmaker, Gregorovitch?" she grinned.

_**Occupied London**_

_**England**_

_**June 17**__**th**_

_**2023 A.D.**_

It was hot, which wasn't all that strange considering that this was hell.

The constant cloud cover kept the heat in but it was only during the random cloud breaks that they could step foot on the surface. It was strange to think that those moments when the darkness above would part for an hour or so were the only reason that they were still alive. Without the light from the sun they would have literally had to fight their way through the Horde just on the off chance that they could salvage supplies. Voldemorts power managed to block out the sun ninety-nine percent of the time but every once in a while he'd loose control of the heavens and the sun would creep through. That's why they had to be ready to move at a moments notice.

It was nevertheless eerie being up there. Teddy had made this run almost a hundred times now but it never got any easier. The sounds of scuttling inside the shadows followed by hissing or snarling reminded them that even though they were temporarily protected by the light, they were always being watched.

Then there was the problem of actually finding supplies. In the open they were reasonably safe but venturing into buildings and houses meant risking the darkness. If a very horde had taken shelter inside one of the buildings that they went into, they would have to fight. Gunshots meant noise. Noise meant attention. Attention meant Brimstone.

She was their biggest problem. Unlike the Horde, she had no problem with the light.

With that thought, Teddy glanced up at the skies. She wasn't very subtle. If she made a move, they would know about it, but that didn't make her any less dangerous. Even the Horde were afraid of her.

He looked back at the depot. That was today's target. A drop off point for Sansbury's where massive eighteen wheelers would bring huge loads of food so that it could be distributed through the other supermarkets around London. They hadn't cleared it out just yet.

Unfortunately, a building that big meant a lot of darkness inside. There would almost certainly be a few infected inside.

"What do you think?" Sharon asked.

"I don't know yet," Teddy said simply, "Hugo?"

Hugo didn't bother looking around. He was taking a piss a few feet away from the others. "If we're gonna go we should go now, the lights not gonna last," he said zipping up his fly.

Teddy took another look at the shifting clouds above then back to the depot. It was always so quiet on the surface. No birds, no people, not even much wind. There were no car engines or lights or activity of any kind. Everything electrical was dead. Voldemort had made sure of that. Now the streets were filled with rubbish and debris that had barely moved since the initial invasion. Some of the plants and creepers had managed to continue growing from the small injections of sun light while others had withered and died.

"I don't like it. Mark it on the map, we'll come back when we have more people."

Sharon pulled out a map of London that had several dozen circles and crosses on it. She added another circle over their current possition.

"Pussy," Hugo grunted. He swung his rifle around and started to walk off.

He had been like that for a while now. Always angry and looking for a fight. It's why he volunteered to go on so many salvage runs. He would take just about any opportunity to kill some Horde. They may have lived through the end of the world but that didn't mean that a man couldn't still get his heart broken.

Teddy, Sharon and Mitchell grabbed their gear and followed him, hoping that the other teams had maybe had more luck.

Teddy gripped his rifle tight as he heard some scuffling in the shadows. Since the city was devoid of anything even resembling life, every foreign sound or movement seemed somehow amplified making it a lot easier to spot.

He saw a few humanoid shapes moving around in the darkness of a destroyed shop. The infected would shadow them all the way back to the underground entrance. The poor bastards had lost all of their humanity and most of their intelligence now, reduced to nothing more than zombies with a single minded goal; to infect others. Somehow Voldemorts virus also allowed them to stave off starvation otherwise the entire population would be dead by now.

They were thin and weak but in large numbers were still a very credible threat. But they also hated the light just as much as the Horde did now so as long as the sun was still shining through the clouds, they were safe.

Not far away a few more of them moved around, tracking the group as far as the shadows would allow. Teddy spotted a couple of Hell Cats in there, growling and snarling, waiting for their opportunity to pounce.

Hugo glared at them as he walked. He would love to shoot them dead right there and then, but it would be a waste of ammo.

Suddenly the Hell Cats stopped growling and scuttled away into the darkness. Then the infected did the same.

"They're running," Mitchell breathed.

Horde and infected running away could only mean one thing and none of them had to say it.

"RUN!" Teddy yelled and the group took off.

She had spotted them. She usually sat on a high vantage point and waited for something to give away it's position and they just had. None of them turned around as they bolted down the street.

Then the hideous roar sounded all around them. She was close.

They cut left just as she swooped in for the kill. A wave of napalm erupted around the street, coming so close that Teddy could feel the hairs on his arm being burnt. Even then, none them looked around.

The ground rumbled as she touched down, her wing fingers digging into the street. She let out another thunderous roar and took a deep breath as the group sprinted towards a railway bridge that arched over the street.

"MITCHELL!" Hugo yelled but it was too late.

She had sent out a second wave of fire and he had moved too late. Mitchell was engulfed in flames that wrapped themselves around his body, burning away his cloths and hair. He writhed around screaming for a second before she moved over and closed her jaws around his torso.

Teddy, Sharon and Hugo didn't stop. They shot down towards the side of the railway bridge, heading for a small metal door.

Hugo got their first and wrenched it open as quickly as he could. Teddy and Sharon were right behind him and bolted through. Hugo quickly move through and slammed the door behind him but not before glancing at the armored beast in front of him. She was enormous, even for an Ironbelly. She must have weighed over eight tonnes.

He didn't savor the image. He slammed and locked the door, and joined the others in rushing down the dark, narrow, pipe filled corridor just in case she decided to try and smash through.

No one knew how she had gotten infected and they really didn't care. Whether it was an accident or Voldemort actually choosing her to be his pet made no difference. When she turned up, you ran for your life or you die. It was that simple.

They stopped next to a ladder at the end of the corridor and panted, trying to catch their breath. When fear grips your body, you often forget just how much energy to expend. The adrenaline takes over and you only realize how exhausted you are once you stop.

Hugo booted one of the pipes in anger.

They didn't speak as climbed down the ladder, leading them into a second, similar corridor with yet another ladder at the end of it. It took almost twenty minutes to reach the tunnels that led them to their safe haven, if it could be called that.

They were all angry about loosing Mitchell, but they wouldn't grieve. They had made a silent pact to shed their tears for the dead once this was all over. If it ever would be over that is.

All the members of the resistance had adapted to the new, much darker world. Now they would simply focus on the rage instead of thinking about the pain. Anger was much more useful than despair or sadness. Ever person they lost simply made them fight harder.

They moved through the cold tunnels that ran beneath the London underground. They had been built during and used as air raid shelters during World War II then closed up in favor of newer, safer ones. It was a veritable labyrinth down there, but they had made this journey so many times that they could find their way back with their eyes closed.

They froze on the spot as the sound of a rifle being cocked echoed around them.

"Who played Private Flanagan in the Longest Day?" a voice from the shadows asked.

"Sean Connery," Sharon answered.

Two men, Baz and Marco, with rifles stepped out and lowered their weapons. It was always a question about movies or music or football teams or some other little tidbit of Muggle information that a Death Eater would have no idea about.

"Where's Mitchell?" Baz asked.

"Which piece?" Hugo huffed and pushed past them.

"Brimstone?"

"How did you guess?" Teddy sighed.

The five of them continued down the dark tunnels until they came to a large cast iron door. It whined as they opened it and stepped through. This led to yet another dark corridor but this one didn't have any pipes in it. Just a dead end.

Marco pulled a wand from his pocket and waved it towards the wall. The dead end then shifted and changed into a massive, solid metal door that looked like some kind of bank vault. The sound of several heavy locked clicking open was heard before the door slowly opened.

There were more men with guns waiting on the other side. The sound of hundreds of people, moving around and talking swept out from behind the door. Teddy and the others stepped through the entrance.

"Close it up. The others are already back," Baz said, stepping through.

On the other side of the door was a small tunnel that lead to a sort of balcony with a ladder attached to it. Twenty feet under the ladder was the actually floor of the main hall. It was bright inside. The entire place was lit up by powerful flood lights that were being bounced off the roof. It was packed with over four thousand people from every walk of life.

There were Anomalies, Muggles, Wizards, House Elves, Goblin's, men, women and children of every age. The entire hall had been converted into a make-shift refugee camp with small areas designated for people. Using salvaged parts and scrap, many of the had made roofs and walls to divide their section for others. They had beds or hammocks, shelves and some even had coat stands.

In the center of the hall was the almighty stone statue of Illyria, the supposed goddess of magic. It was still hard to believe that the place that was once the headquarters for the organization responsible for almost exterminated Anomalies was now place of safety for thousands of people.

Teddy and the others climbed down the ladder and was met by Scott, their resident receptionist who was holding a clipboard. He had some kind of compulsive disorder about keeping records and files of everything. He marked down the times that people left the Temple and arrived back, how much stuff they brought in, areas that they had covered and just about everything else that could be filed away as if they would one day have to show it to management or something. It seemed to be his way of dealing with the pain.

"Only three of you?" he asked.

Teddy nodded.

Scott sighed as he jotted down the information. He did actually have a tally of the Temples population and would corrected every time someone was killed or survivors were found. Of course, they didn't find survivors much these days.

Teddy, Sharon and Hugo slouched their way past him and over to a table that was the designated area for unloading supplies. Sharon unloaded one of her bags and piled the stuff together.

"Two cans of peaches. One tin of vegetable soup. Three boxes of Tampons, the ladies will be happy," Scott said absently as he marked down what they had.

Teddy pulled a few rolls of kitchen towels from his bag and two tins of beans and placed them on the table.

"Is that a bear?" Hugo asked looking perplexed.

Across the hall, the Bobs and three other resistances members were dragging a large lump of brown fur across the floor that did indeed resemble a bear.

"Oh, yes, they found him over in Islington," Scott said.

"Can you eat bear?"

"I don't see why not. Skin it and throw it into a nice stew or something. I doubt anyone will complain," he said writing a few notes down, "this isn't much. We're going to have to cut rations again."

Scott finished writing then walked off to what he would probably describe as his office. He was right. They had hoped to find more than a few tins of food and tampons. It was a good thing that The Bobs had managed to snag the bear, otherwise they'd have a lot of hungry people of their hands. Animals were always a bonus. Anything that could fly had left the island long ago but the land animals were just as stuck as the resistance.

For some reason, both the Horde and the infected ignored animals. They had no idea why. Only Brimstone would attack them, but then, she would attack just about anything.

Teddy grabbed his bag and made his was through refugee area which they had named Slumville. He received a few waves and smiles as he went. A lot of people looked at him as the leader of the resistance when in actual fact, he would have done just about anything to avoid the responsibility of it.

He turned off and walked down a corridor that led to what used to be the Holding Cells. Now they were rooms for a few of the earliest members of the resistance.

Her door was open but he knocked anyway. She didn't turn around or say anything so he entered.

She was sitting at small desk that had a lamp on it. In front of her was a open book with blank pages.

"Snagged ya a tin of extra hot chilly. Don't tell Scott," Teddy said, pull the tin that he had hidden from his bag, "can't see how you like this stuff."

"Thanks," she said quietly, "lose anyone?"

Somehow she always knew.

"Yeah...Mitchell."

"That's too bad."

It was worrying just how detached she was becoming. She had always been so strong at the beginning, but now, she seemed to be loosing the will to keep flighting.

"What are you writing?"

"Nothing yet."

Teddy looked around awkwardly. He was trying to find a way to make conversation or give her reassurance but nothing was coming to him.

"The Bobs killed a bear."

"I heard."

"I -"

"I'm fine Teddy. Go and see your wife," she interrupted. She really wasn't in a talking mood.

Teddy shuffled out of her room quickly.

She stared at the blank page in front of her, wondering where to begin. About six minutes later she picked up the pen and started writing.

_My name is Lily Luna Potter and I'm writing this journal because I honestly don't think that I'm going to survive this war. Knowledge is our greatest alley now so when I'm dead, it'll be up to who ever reads this to continue you where I leave off. I suppose I should start at the beginning..._


	2. The Day the Whole World Went Away

_**The Day of Darkness**_

_**Isle of Dogs**_

_**London, England**_

_**January 6**__**th**___

_**2023 A.D.**_

Another blast rocked the ground, temporarily drowning out the yelling and gunfire. Bone spikes cut through the air, digging into anything that was strong enough to stop them.

"MAL! AMELIA! COME ON!" Albus shouted but the others were pinned down.

Lily saw her chance and dived out from behind her cover. She start running towards the helicopter but at the same moment, he felt a chill of fear go down her back.

"LILY NO! RUN!"

She turned to see Albus's twin standing less that fifteen feet from her.

"Lily Potter? How many times do I have to kill you?" he smirked sadistically as he raised his hand.

A haunting ball of green light appeared in his palm causing Lily to freeze in fear. Maybe it was some part of his old life that flashed in his mind or maybe he simply didn't want to take any chances, but this time, he didn't aim for the young redhead. He aimed for the wall behind her.

The blast knocked her off her feet and surround her in dust. She looked up just seconds before seeing the avalanche of bricks coming towards her.

She didn't no how she did, she didn't even mutter a single word, but she managed to hit the deck and put up a shield around herself just as the crushing load collapsed on top of her. She was completely covered by the rubble but could hear James's horrified voice screaming out her name.

Through the cracks between the bricks that were laying on top of her shield, she saw an eruption of blue lightning and knew that Athena was close.

She couldn't play possum any longer.

"Stupefy!"

The mass of broken debris was blasted off her and she stood up quickly. The dust was so thick that is completely clouded her vision. She looked around but could only see fires burning all around her. Then the noise of the helicopter rang through her ears.

She looked up and the tiniest twang of hope hit her and she watched her brothers fly to safety. Before she could enjoy it any longer, a hand locked itself around Lily's wrist and tugged.

Athena was dragging Lily away, trying to find cover as quickly as possible.

"LILY!"

She spun around to see Scorpius and Hugo running towards her while reloading their weapons.

"Your okay!"

"I thought you were dead!" Hugo puffed out as he slammed a fresh clip into the rifle.

"We gotta get out of here!" Athena growled and again started tugging Lily away.

"VIOLET! WE ARE LEAVING!" Scorpius yelled out.

The tall brunette bolted over towards them and as a group they shot away from the battle. They ducted into an alley between two warehouses, moving as quickly as they could to the other side.

Just as they approached the other side, a group of frantic soldiers ran past, firing into the air. A few seconds later, A Mantis creature roared it's way past the opening, swiping at the air as it went.

Athena peaked her head around the corner just in time to see a rocket connect with the back of the monster, blasting it to pieces.

"We gotta get to the river! To the transports!" Lily said, trying to catch her breath.

"All right! Stay behind me!" Athena led the way as the ran through the open, trying to get to the Thames and hopefully a way off the island.

They heard a roar from one of the massive super monsters that was crawling it's way down the side of the Thames. The blue orbs on it's head buzzed to life with eerie energy before it sent out a solid beam that ripped it's way through of the ferries that was creeping it's across the water.

The ship exploded in a heartbeat. They watched in horror as flaming bodies were thrown into the air and crashing into the water.

That thing was targeting the transports. They weren't getting off the island that way.

For a second, Lily's stomach churned at the idea that her mother and aunt could be on board that ship, but she wouldn't allow herself to think that. They would be time for that later, right now, they had to get out of England.

"The Ministry! Maybe some of the Floo points are still working," Violet suggest.

"That's about two miles from here!"

"You got a better idea?!" Violet shouted.

"Whatever, we have to keep moving!" Athena said. She took another look around the corner then took hold of Lily's wrist again.

For some reason, she seemed to think that Lily couldn't make it on her own.

Again, they made a break for it across the open ground, heading for the nearest bridge but Tower Bridge was too far. They'd have to go through Rotherhithe tunnel.

They managed to make it all the way past Canary Wharf before running into trouble. This time it came in the form of several Cat-creatures that seemed to be trying to scale the walls of the larger buildings in London. The group hadn't seen them clinging to the sides of them, high above them.

They dropped down right in front of them and immediately tried to pounce on Scorpius. Athena was too quick though, striking one with a heavy lightning bolt that sent it smashing through a phone booth. The bright flashes given off by her voltage scared the others into backing away.

They wait for them to return. They bolted across the Westferry roundabout and continued around the curve of the island, flanked by the Thames that was now littered with floating debris and dead bodies.

Finally they made it to the Tunnel entrance. As expected, it was completely gridlocked with abandoned cars, many of which had been loaded up with luggage and furniture.

Considering the war that was going on all around the city, this Tunnel seemed unnervingly quiet. They had to go through though. The south of London was still seeing the least amount of fighting, that was their safest road.

Many of the lights had been destroyed by vibrations from explosions but there was still enough to see.

The group shifted their way through and around the silent vehicles, hearing the rumbles and echoes of what was going on outside.

Once through, they would have to make their way through Surrey Docks, then Bermondsey and Southwark and finally through Waterloo and over the Hungerford bridge. It seemed so far away.

A few of the lights flickered above them causing that annoying buzzing sound. But once it dissipated it was replaced by another. A strange scratching noise not far in front.

Suddenly something moved between two of the cars in front. A second glance confirmed what Lily already thought. It was man.

"Hey! You!" she called out.

The man stopped and looked at Lily for a second then started walking over to her.

"You need to come with us, we're leaving," she shouted.

The man didn't say anything but continued to move towards her.

"Lily...step back," Athena said quietly.

"What?"

"GET BACK!"

Suddenly the man burst into a sprint and started screaming. It was a horrible sound, like metal being scrapped together.

Lightning lit up the tunnel as Athena sent streams of electricity at the man. It slammed into his chest, sending him flying backwards into a car. He wriggled there for a second before jumping off the bonnet and breaking into another charge.

This time gunfire sounded out as Hugo and Scorpius put bullets through his chest. The man collapsed to the floor, still shrieking and then started to actually crawl his way towards them.

Finally, Hugo put a bullet through his head which put him down for good.

"What the fuck was that?!" Scorpius blurted.

Athena took the lead and moved up next to the body, while Hugo flanked her on the side. He poked the corpse with his barrel a few times to see if it moved but it didn't. He then kicked over onto it's back.

"Jesus!" Athena breathed, "what the hell happened to his eyes?!"

None of them could answer that. The mans eyes were completely black and seemed to almost be bleeding out of the sockets. Likewise, his mouth was dripping some kind of disgusting dark ooze.

"Some kind of fucking zombie!" Hugo hissed.

"See all that shit coming out of his eyes? Looks more like he's infected with something. Some kind of virus," Violet breathed.

"Great! I don't feel like sitting here for twenty eight days so can we go now?" Hugo huffed.

Within seconds they were on the move again. This time they weren't stopping for anything.

As expected, Surrey Docks were pretty devoid of any activity, as was Bermondsey, just empty streets and abandoned vehicles, but as they approached Southwark things started to get bad again. They getting closer to gunfire and had even seen a few people rushing through the roads, trying to get to the river to jump on a ferry. Of course, they were completely unaware that the big one was just down river, blasting the hell out of just about anything it could find.

They had tried to signal a few of the civilians and convince them to come to the Ministry, but all of them turned them down the moment they mentioned going further into the city.

Waterloo was the worst. People were actually trying to crowd into the station and get on trains heading for Ashford. From they, they would going to try and board the Eurostar and get across the tunnel but there were so many people and so few trains that some of them were actually jumping onto the tracks and trying to walk there. They were willing to take their chances navigating the tube tunnels to get as far from the creatures as possible, then follow the over land tracks further south.

Dozens of soldiers and police were trying to keep order but it was getting completely out of hand. Every time there was an explosion or roar from one of the monsters, the people screamed and pushed harder. It was chaos, but if the Ministry option failed, it might be their only chance.

To add insult to injury, the unnatural heavy clouds above looked like they were about to open up because a few drops of rain had already started to fall.

"ATHENA!" a familiar voice yelled out.

Amelia suddenly shot out from the crowed and over to the group. Her happiness at seeing them alive faded the second she realized that there were only five of them.

"Where's everyone else? Where's Lincoln?!"

"Him, Lynx, Rose and James got on a helicopter with Albus. I think they're safe," Lily said quickly.

"A helicopter? Why in the hell would Al need a helicopter?" Amelia asked looking perplexed.

"Voldemort took his powers," Athena stated gravely.

"Voldemort?!"

"Let's try and figure it out later! We need to get to the Ministry, some of the floo points might still be working," Violet said quickly.

"How bad's the fighting over there?" Athena asked.

"Most of it's still contained to the North but that's not gonna last. These things are everywhere! All over the country!" Amelia explained.

"Did they evacuate St. Mungos?" Scorpius asked in a strangled voice, "m-my fathers there..."

"As far as I know, yes, but I can't say for sure."

"See anybody else we know?" Hugo asked.

"I haven't been checking faces, Hugo!"

"All right! All right! Let's just get there!" Lily yelled.

The group didn't argue. They straight away took off heading towards the Hungerford bridge.

Like the rest of London, cars had just been ditched half-way across the bridge and people had taken to running. There were still a few civilians coming in from across the river. Many of them were wounded or covered in dirt from getting too close to the fighting.

Suddenly Lily's eyes went wide as she spotted three people running towards her over the bridge. He didn't have his trademark blue hair, but it was unmistakably Teddy Lupin. He was clutching hold of his beautiful platinum blond wife who was covered heard to toe in dust and blood. She was cradling her left hand that had a poorly wrapped bandage on it.

On the other side of Teddy was Dominique, looking more terrified than ever before.

"TEDDY!" Lily yelled out, getting his attention.

The group rushed over to see them.

"What are you still doing here, where's the others?!" Lily demanded.

"We were just leaving! We got separated back there. Damn building blew up right in front of us! Shredded Vicky's hand pretty good," Teddy huffed, out of breath, "I saw Louis getting on an army transport. I think him, Bill and Fleur got out."

Amelia pulled out her wand and took a look a Victoire's hand. She carefully pulled the bandage off then conjured another.

"What are you still doing here?" Teddy asked Lily.

"Long story. We're heading to the Ministry," she said.

"They already evacuated it!"

"We're going for the floo points. You need to come with us! It's complete chaos back the way we came," she said quickly.

Amelia finished bandaging Victoire's hand and tucked away her wand. "That's the best I can do for now. Healing's not my specialty."

"All right, we'll try the Ministry," Teddy declared.

"No, no, no! Those things are back there!" Dominique cried as she clutched hold of his jacket with shaky hands.

"You're gonna be fine Dom. I'll look after you," Athena stated. She seemed to feel somehow protective over the young Anomaly.

The larger group continued across the bridge, praying that nothing would come out of the water to smash it to bits like some kind of B movie. Luckily that made it across safely but were now very close to the fighting. Charing Cross wasn't far from the river, but it would still be dangerous getting there.

There was a large operations post filled with soldiers about two minutes from the bridge. They seemed far more concerned with just getting people away from the area than fighting the creatures. This pointed to the probability that they were indeed going to start ordering air strikes soon.

That would flatten half of London and probably collapse the Ministry on top of their heads.

"Anybody got a spare wand?" Teddy asked quietly.

"You lost yours?"

"Yeah, in the blast. So did Dom," he explained.

Hugo went into his pocket and pulled his wand out. "I want this back," he warned before handing it to Teddy.

"Won't you need it?"

Hugo just held up his rifle.

"Right," Teddy rolled his eyes. Hugo had watched too many action movies.

"Their armor's too thick for magic anyway," he remarked.

"I still don't like being without one," Teddy admitted.

"Come on, let's go," Athena interrupted.

They ran down the street, past a few four story buildings that seemed to be in one piece then turned right, moving past an old Pub that had the windows and doors sealed up with metal sheets. Not far in front was the broken down old red phone box that would lead them into the Atrium.

There were too many of them to fit into one trip especially with the heavy machine guns they were carrying, but after two turns the group was re assembled in the middle of the deserted Atrium.

They walked straight across the enormous hallway and over to the fireplaces that lined the left wall. Lily took a deep breath and stepped forward. She grabbed a hand full of floo powder and stood in the arch praying that this would actually work. Then something occurred to her.

"Where should I say to go?" Lily asked.

"It doesn't matter," Amelia said, "the Cajun override the connection points. It'll spit you out randomly somewhere outside the country."

For a second, Lily imagined herself arriving in some foreign country where nobody spoke English, or arriving in the living room of a terrified elderly couple in Australia. Of course, just about anything was better than London at this point. She threw the powder down.

Nothing happened. There was no gust or explosion of green flames. She was still stuck in the Ministry.

"Shit!" Amelia mumbled.

"Where's the floo hub?" Scorpius asked.

"Level six."

"Let's go."

"Can we stop by the Auror Department? I need to see about getting a new wand," Teddy stated as they headed for the elevators.

The got off at the first floor and headed down the corridor. It was strange seeing the Ministry so deserted. They had only ever been there when the place had been surging with witches, wizards, goblins, house elves and even the occasional centaur, now it was a ghost town.

Teddy knew exactly where he was going though. To the evidence lock ups at the back of the Auror office where they often kept confiscated wands. The lock ups looked like a wall of draws that were made to hold post it notes but in actual fact, would open up into massive containers filled with dozens of different objects.

He started looking through the tags on the draws, trying to see if any of them held wands. As he did, something caused Amelia to look around, smelling the air.

"You smell that?" she asked.

Athena followed suite, sniffing carefully.

"Somebodies here," Amelia whispered.

Hugo and Scorpius immediately moved forward with the weapons ready followed closely by Violet and Lily.

"Where?" Hugo asked in a hushed voice.

"End of the room, over there," she pointed to an open door that led to a hallway.

They slowly moved towards the source of the smell but as they approached the hallway, Amelia suddenly stopped looking cautious and started looking angry. She growled under her breath and walked a head of the others.

The others lowered their weapons when they saw what was pissing her off.

Mathis was still sitting in his cell, looking bored. He started chuckling as Amelia moved closer to the bars.

"That makes sense..." he mumbled.

"Ahh, what's wrong Mathis? Did you get left behind?" Amelia chimed in angry delight.

"Well, everyone was so busy running their asses off that I guess they just forgot about me," Mathis admitted.

"Poor you. Well, give my regards to the afterlife," Amelia smiled.

"Wait," Teddy interrupted, "we can't just leave him here."

"Yes we can!" Lily growled.

"Lily!" Victoire shrieked in shocked objection.

"He tried to kill my brother Vicky, I'm not feeling too sympathetic!" the redhead hissed.

"And if I had killed your brother...would any of this be happening right now?" Mathis mused, "guess we'll never know..."

That was the part that angered Lily most of all. That Mathis did in fact have the exact same driving code that Albus had: The greater good.

"So you're just okay with leaving him here to starve to death...or for those things?" Teddy asked with resentment in his voice.

Amelia scowled at him. He had too much of Harry inside him, to much blind goodness, unable to see the forest for the trees.

"I could kill him right now if you'd like...I'll make it quick," Athena smiled sadistically. Like Lily and Amelia, she didn't care one bit for Mathis. Not after he had hunted her kind to the brink of extinction.

"Yeah, it would be like the electric chair!" Amelia grinned.

"And what then? What's your plan Athena? How you getting out of here?" Mathis smiled in return knowing that she didn't have one.

"I'll take my chances," Athena hissed as she stepped closer, getting ready to burn her way through the bars.

"I won't," Mathis stated, "I haven't stayed alive this long by making reckless decisions. I know somewhere you could be safe."

That caught every ones ears but Lily, Amelia and Athena didn't trust it for a second.

"Of course, that would mean you letting me out of this cell...which you're not gonna do, are you?" he continued.

"Bullshit! He loves playing mind games, don't listen to him," Amelia glared.

"Underground..." a whisper escaped Dominique's lips. She was staring at him as if trying to get a lock on that particular thought, but she was still too young to focus her power in such a way, "he's telling the truth..."

"Well, well..." Mathis' eyes had gone wide and he was looking straight at Dom, "she always did know how to pick em'."

"Who?" Lily asked.

"I'll give you a clue, she loves to manipulate people, she's got blond hair and she's over two thousand years old," Mathis chuckled.

"Sophia?" Scorpius blurted.

"Bingo!"

"You don't know anything about her!" Amelia growled.

"I know that when dangers about, she's nowhere to be found..." Mathis smiled.

"She has her reasons!" Athena hissed.

"Oh, that she does..." suddenly Mathis face lit up with amazement. He got off his seat and moved closer to the bars looking like a child at Christmas, "you really thought that we didn't know about the Cajun?!"

Their looks of surprise where enough to make him burst into laughter.

"Sophia and the Cajun will always be beyond your reach, Mathis!" Lily barked.

"True...but what about Al's brother? Are they beyond his?" Mathis grinned, "my offer still stands...your choice...I suggest you chose quickly though. It's only a matter of time before they search this place."

"Can't trust him!" Athena whispered to Teddy.

"Let's check the floo hub," Amelia said loudly.

"You really think they didn't think of that ahead of time, Amelia? I thought you were suppose to be quite sharp?" Mathis chuckled.

Amelia suddenly lunged at the bars, bearing her fangs and snarling. She had actually bent the bars slightly after impacting. It was enough to cause Mathis to back up a few steps.

"Lets go," Athena said gently pulling at Amelia's arm, trying to get her away from the bars.

The group exited the holding cells and then the Auror office, but not before Teddy returned to the lock ups to find himself a wand. After a few minutes of searching, he manage to get himself one that had belonged to a wizard that had slain his wife after finding out that she had cheated on him. Under the circumstances, he really didn't care what the wand had been used for previously.

They traveled back to the elevator and then down to the sixth floor. The Department of Magical transportation took up the entire floor but the floo hub was difficult to find. The problem came after they had found the door to the hub. It had been blasted open by a spell.

As they stepped inside, Mathis's words rang through their minds. The hub had been completely destroyed.

Pieces of broken pipe were lying everywhere and the walls were scorched with burn marks.

"This was done by spell fire," Violet stated.

"Yeah, his Death Eaters must be busy these days," Hugo mumbled.

"Death Eaters?!" Victoire gasped.

As usual, Hugo had said too much. Teddy, Victoire and Dominique still didn't know that Voldemort was in fact Albus's brother. They simply hadn't had time to tell them. Dominique seemed to be attempting to read one of there minds in the hope of gaining answers, but was still having trouble focusing.

"Now is not the time for explanations, we need a plan!" Amelia declared.

"Are you telling me that Vold -"

"AAHHH!" Athena suddenly fell to the ground writhing in pain and grabbing the sides of her head.

"Athena!" Lily yelped.

"What's wrong?!" Scorpius asked frantically.

"What is that?!" she screamed, still clutching the sides of her head.

"What's what?"

"You don't feel that?! AHH! What is it?!"

Athena was in agony, but she was the only one. Something seemed to be affecting her, like an invisible signal. Violet looked up to see that Dominique seemed absolutely fine. Whatever this was, only Athena could feel it.

Spark of electricity started jumping from her body as she yelled out in pain again. Huge jumped backwards as the current running through her body sent a lightning jolt to his hand. That's when they heard the noise.

A great humming sound as if something were powering up all around them. It continued to build and build like there was a jet engine beneath them or they were standing inside a nuclear reactor.

A great blinding white light flashed for a second then everything seemed to go quiet again.

The light had vanished along with the sound. Athena had stopped screaming and was now lying on the floor breathing heavily and shaking.

"What the hell was that?!" Scorpius blurted.

"...an EMP..." Athena whispered.

She slowly picked herself up off the floor, still obviously shaken. She opened her palm and allowed a few streams of electricity to twist themselves around her fingers. She was checking to see that her powers still worked.

"A what?"

"EMP, Electro magnetic pulse," Violet explained.

"Shuts down everything electrical for miles," Amelia added, "tell me they didn't just nuke London!"

"No...this was different..." Athena said quietly, "some kind of magically induce pulse. I could feel it, trying to shut me down..."

Athena was the master of electricity and technology. She could sense static in the air and bend lightning to her will, she had even taken control of the United States tactical nuclear weapons before which had obviously somehow allowed her to feel the pulse coming and it had almost killed her.

"Your saying that everything is shut down now?!" Teddy gasped, "phones, cars, boats -"

"Anything that runs on electricity...yes!" Athena growled, "I'm guessing a lot of magical enchantments will have gone down as well...that was defiantly magical in nature, the pulse would have overloaded them..."

"How is that even possible?" Victoire asked in a whisper.

"How is any of this possible?!" Athena snapped.

"Wait...so you're saying that the magical enchantments that run this place have gone down...which means that the entrances and exits have gone down...right?" Scorpius asked.

Athena nodded.

"Great...I'm trapped underground with a group of my relatives, an Anomaly, a criminal, a Vampire and a lesbian that's on her period...dreams really do come true," Hugo said in a bored voice.

"Shut up, Hugo!"

"How the hell do you know I'm on my period?!" Violet blurted.

"It's the PMS, it really brings out the color of eyes."

Violet glared.

"You look really nice today by the way," he continued, "I'm really glad that you still found time to straighten your hair while the world ends."

"Do you ever shut up?!" Victoire hissed.

"Not while I'm alive, no."

"Hugo, if you want to keep your testicles, you'll stop talking right now and help us find a way out of here!" Amelia growled.

"Love it when you talk dirty," he winked.

"I think we already know the way out," Scorpius sighed, "or at least Mathis does..."


	3. Early Release

_**The Day of Darkness**_

_**Ministry of Magic**_

_**London, England**_

_**January 6**__**th**___

_**2023 A.D.**_

"We you out of here, you're gonna take us to this safe place of yours and if you try anything, I'll take great pleasure in cutting your legs off and leaving you for those fucking things!" Amelia growled.

Mathis simply nodded back at her with a slight smugness on his face. He knew that they needed him.

After explaining about the EMP he still seemed pretty confidant that his safe heaven would be no less protected

"Before we let you out, tell us how to get out of here," Lily demanded. She wanted a show of good faith.

Mathis grinned. "You remember Jack Daggra?"

"I remember a giant mutant werewolf that tore it's way through London!" Hugo blurted.

"Yeah well, he tore his way through this place first and first got in by smashing through the wall from the subway tunnels that run parallel. That's how were getting out," he explained.

"Tube tunnels, not subway. You're not in yankyville anymore mate," Scorpius huffed. "No offense," he added when Amelia shot a look at him.

"Right...just blast our way through the wall? Sounds fun," Teddy snorted.

"The main problem comes from the fact that the subway tunnel we'll be going into doesn't connect to Piccadilly circus station and that's where we need to be," he added.

"Piccadilly is only about four streets over," Victoire stated.

"Yeah, but up there, four streets is like four miles!" Violet moaned.

"Fine, stay here," Lily hissed.

"We gonna do this or not?" Athena huffed.

Amelia gave her a nod and she moved close to the cell. She pushed her hand against the lock and sent a heavy charge into her fingers. The exploded causing the door to fly open.

Mathis stood up looking happy and straightened his cloth. He shuffled straight past Athena whole gave out a slight growl as he moved.

The group followed Mathis. Amelia didn't take her eyes off him as if she was actually hoping that he'd try something so that she could kill him. The elevators were down so they had to take the stairs down to level three.

It actually turned out to be a bit more difficult finding the place that Daggra had broken through before. The repair job had been so good that you'd never think that anything had happened there in the first place. Eventually they just had to guess and then start smashing up the section. The _Confringo Curse_ came in handy but since Amelia was the only one that knew how to cast it, it still took a while.

A while later and hole revealed a dark tunnel behind it. They caught sharp gusts of wind where air was traveling around the underground maze. Violet, Amelia, Teddy and Scorpius lit their wands as they climbed through. The section that they stood in was quite illuminated but the rest of the tunnel was complete blackness.

They didn't linger. They moved quickly, trying to avoid tripping on the tracks, towards the platform of Charing Cross station. From there they'd once again have to brave the London war zone for a few blocks before again, traveling into the dark tunnels below.

As they climbed the steps of Charing Cross they could hear the faint sounds of gunfire in the distance but that was all. There were very few explosions or sounds that would indicate that a fierce battle was taking place. The EMP had shut down all power, probably across the entire country. That meant that the Muggles had lost all air power, vehicles, ships, rockets, radios and even things like hospital equipment and watches.

Lily tried not to think about how many people had just died simply from being on board plains when the pulse had hit. Unfortunately, she was given a horrid reminder as soon as they reached street level. A helicopter was lying on it's side where it had crashed into the street just ahead of them. Her thoughts flashed to her brothers, but again she couldn't think about that now.

Aurora had taught them well. The worst possible thing to do in these sort of situations was to panic. You had to keep your thoughts focused on an objective and their objective was to reach Piccadilly. She repeated the name of the station over and over as they quietly and quickly moved along the street, hugging the buildings for cover.

It seemed to have changed dramatically after the EMP. The place seemed completely deserted now. No soldiers, no civilians and no monster. No doubt, the military had been forced to order a mass retreat once they lost the advantage of high powered technology. They had been knocked back into the stone age and were now running for their lives.

Hopefully this meant that the creatures had left the areas where the fighting was at it's heaviest and moved out into the city. If that was true then they might be able to make it to Piccadilly with being spotted.

The group crossed the street as a tight circle. The armed were covering Dominique and Victoire while Athena took the lead and Amelia brought up the rear. The quietly moved passed a large gray bus that had had a nasty impact with a lamp post. The front had been completely destroyed by the crash.

_BANG!_

Lily spun around with her weapon ready but managed to stop herself from pulling the trigger.

"Please! Please help us! Don't leave us in here!" a handsome young man in his early twenties pleaded through the glass.

"It's all right, we'll get you!" she said quickly. The crash had obviously jammed the door somehow and everyone had been to busy running away to stop and help.

"Err...Lily..." Hugo said, "that might not be such a good idea," he nodded to the side of the bus.

The writing on the side of the bus spelled out something worrying: _**Belmarsh Prison Transportation**_

Lily sighed. "You're convicts?"

During the evacuation, they had obviously decided to move the scum last of all.

"Don't leave us in here for those things!" the man yelled.

Three others moved up and looked at her through the window. One was a short burly looking man while the other looked like her should have worked in a library or something. He had big rimmed glasses and messy graying hair. The third was a woman that had a butch look about her.

"Please!"

Lily sighed again then looked up at the convicts.

"We're all armed. You try anything and those things won't get the chance to kill you," she stated, "understand?"

"We're not gonna try anything! Just let us out!"

She walked over to the busted door on the side of the bus.

"Lily..." Teddy warned.

"What? We just let one criminal out, we might as well do it again!" she huffed, "Amelia?"

The Vampire walked over and with a single tug from one arm literally pulled the door right off the bus.

"It's so sexy that you can do that!" Hugo blurted.

Amelia just rolled her eyes. How he could still manage to hit on her during a time like this was beyond her. The four prisoners rushed over to the missing door and shuffled out of the bus. All four of them still had chains locking their feet together but they seemed to have found a way to free themselves from their cuffs.

"Thank you," the young man said, "I'm Jared."

"Lily," they didn't shake hands. "Just the four of you?"

"Others died in the crash," he said simply.

Amelia knelt down and took hold of his chains. She pulled at them and a second later the metal snapped.

"How'd you do that?" Jared breathed. Amelia answered him with a glare that made him look away.

"You got any spare weapons?" the woman asked.

"We'll protect you, but we're not arming you!" Teddy objected, "for all we know you could be mass murderers!"

"Actually, I committed tax fraud," that certainly explained why he looked like a librarian, "I'm Webster by the way."

"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. They'll be time for introductions later. We need to get to Piccadilly," Athena grunted.

"Piccadilly?! No, we need to get out of the city!" Jared objected.

"Those things are everywhere now! You'll never make it," Amelia growled.

"But the army -"

"The army?" Scorpius cut him off, "if the army is smart, they'll be running for their lives right now! We've got a place that's safe so you can either come with us or you can take your chances in the city, but don't whatever you do, don't rely on the army. This battle is over. We lost."

Scorpius's word struck home with everyone. It was something that hadn't really occurred to them until now but he was absolutely right. It was over.

They _had_ lost.

_**Malfoy Maison**_

_**Istanbul, Turkey**_

_**August 4th**_

_**2100 A.D.**_

Anya remained in stunned silence as Dominique's all knowing gaze stayed on her. Dominique had always had an immensely intimidating look of supreme calmness about her. It was as if nothing in the world could surprise her.

The beautiful Anomaly moved gracefully past Anya and pulled the book that activated the hidden compartment in Scorpius's office. The door closed, once again hiding the sword.

"I knew Scorpius wouldn't be able to resist showing you that," she remarked, "you're lucky. If you couldn't regenerate, you'd be dead by now. Even an Anomaly's immune system isn't strong enough to take Basilisk venom. Fate seems to feel that you are important."

Despite her utter and complete surprise, Anya still understood that Dominique had obviously know about her for a while.

"Oh, I knew the moment your mother told me that she was pregnant," Dominique answer reminded Anya that she was reading her thoughts, "she could feel that there was something special about you. We had originally planned to tell you sooner but certain complications arose and we decided that the time wasn't right."

"So...I'm defiantly a..."Anya croaked out but couldn't finish.

"Of course," she smiled simply.

"And Alex and Peter...are they -"

"No, I'm afraid not. Just you. It seems extremely dominate in the female side of your family," Dominique said softly.

"But, I don't understand," Anya breathed.

"There is a lot to explain, Anya...but I'm afraid I'm not the one that should to it. Your mother will be home soon, she'll have your answers. It's ironic though...eleven years old, about to go to Hogwarts and given the biggest revelation of your life...you have a lot in common with Harry Potter."

Anya was still so stunned that she barely even noticed that Scorpius had just entered the study.

"Ah, I see you found her..." he began but stopped as soon as he saw the pale look of shock on Anya's face, "Anya! What's wrong?!" he rushed over.

"She knows, Scorpius," Dominique said simply.

His jaw dropped open and he looked around at her.

"No, I didn't tell her," Dominique said after hearing the question in his head, "she found out by herself, as we knew she would."

"Anya, I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner but...when your mother gets here, we'll talk about this, I promise," Scorpius tried to reassure her but it came off sounding like he was actually trying to reassure himself.

"It'll be a lot to take, but your a strong girl, Anya," Dominique smiled.

"Dom...she isn't ready to know some stuff -"

"We always knew the day would come when we would have to come clean Scorpius. Isn't that why you've been telling her Albus's story? Trying to give her the background information so that she'll understand?" Dominique said calmly.

"She's just a child," Scorpius sighed, "and Dawn will -"

"Dawn will understand. This is her legacy as well," she said will a slight amount of force in her voice.

"Legacy...what do you mean?" Anya squeaked.

"Your mother is like you Anya, she's very special," Dominique said.

"What?!" Anya shrieked, "why didn't she tell me?!"

"It wasn't safe. She'll explain everything."

"No! I need to know now! I can't wait!" Anya objected.

"Yes, you can," Dominique smiled.

Just as she did, Anya suddenly felt very sleepy. Her vision blurred and her limbs became heavy, then she collapsed. Scorpius grabbed her and stopped her from hitting the floor.

"What are you doing?!" he barked.

"Continuing where you left off," she said simply.

"What?"

"She wants to know Albus's story, so I'm going to show her."

_**Atlantic Ocean**_

_**43 miles west of Dingle Ireland.**_

_**January 7**__**th**___

_**2023 A.D.**_

The Ghost ship drifted through a heavy fog bank with an eerie grace. There wasn't a single sound coming from it and it glided through the still water.

_The Maltov_ was a twin screw, one hundred and sixty foot long, rusty, floating bath tub. It looked like it was being held together by the bird shit since most of the paint had already come off.

At one point, it had been used as a medical ship in the Russian navy, but from the look of it, that was during the first Iraq war. It should have been decommissioned years ago, but had somehow been skipped over when it came to that.

Now, on top of it's age, it's was also powerless.

Down in the engine room, Lincoln, James, Lynx and Rose were trying to somehow jump start the ship back to life but it wasn't going well. This was their forth attempt. Unfortunately, even though a spell existed that could simply manually turn the screws and move the rudder, the only person that knew how to cast it was Aurora, and she was in a coma that she may never wake from.

They had moved her into one of the sleeping quarters in the upper decks. Lynx had been at her bedside ever since they had left England but when the ship lost power, she was forced to leave and try and help.

"Hold this," Lincoln said, handing Rose a loose cable. He was fiddling around with some kind of junction box.

He clipped a wire then pushed something into position before asking for the cable back. He attached it in place then stood up and closed the panel he had been working on.

"All right, fingers crossed," he said.

He walked over to a a large control box that stood between the two main engines of the ship and shifted a handle upwards.

Nothing happen. None of them were surprised, but it was getting extremely frustrating.

"Shit," Lincoln sighed.

"This ship is dead!" James moaned.

"Don't start panicking yet, we haven't tried everything," Lincoln stated.

"What's the point? Whatever that energy wave thingy was, it shut down everything!" James groaned as he kicked one of the engines.

"He's right," Rose said in distress, "we've got no engines, no steering, no lights, no heat and we're caught in the current! That means we're just going to drift around the ocean until we hit Greenland!"

"Calm down!" Lincoln huffed and thought for a second, "Al had that implant thing. Maybe he got something about engineering, go see if he's got any ideas,"

"Al's not exactly in a talking mood right now," James mumbled.

"Will you just go ask him!" Lincoln growled.

James sighed and slouched off to look for his brother.

"I'll go check on Aurora," Lynx said quietly.

It took about ten minutes but eventually James found Albus sitting on the floor in the corner of the galley taking large swigs out of a bottle of vodka and smoking a cigarette.

"There's vodka?" James said as he took a seat on a seat in front of him.

"It's a Russian ship James, of course there's vodka." he said in a bored tone.

"Look, we're not getting anywhere with the engines, wanna come down and give us a hand?" James offered.

"What's the point?" he said before taking another chug of booze.

"The _point_ is that if we get the power back, maybe we can sail this ship somewhere safe!" James hissed.

"There's no such thing as safe...he's back and I couldn't stop him," Albus said. His voice was hollow and lifeless.

"Yeah...well...we'll just call that round one," James tried.

"No...that was KO."

"So what? That's it? Your just giving up?" James looked stunned. He'd never heard Albus talk like this before.

"Yeah...why, aren't you?"

"No! I'm not fucking giving up!" James roared and stood up enraged, "he killed dad! And Ron! And Lily! There's no way I'm gonna stop fighting him!" tears were starting to form in his eyes.

"Fine...go fight him, you can't win," Albus said without emotion.

"We can't do it without you Al! We need you! We need the Colossus!"

"The Colossus is dead," his voice was dark and cold, "I'm just Albus now...pathetic little Albus Potter that can't fly a broom, can't do magic and certainly can't be a save anybody."

James crouched down and put his hand on his brothers shoulder. He couldn't stand hearing him talk like this. It was torture. Albus was their strength and their inspiration. He couldn't just watch him give up.

"Look...I understand, you lost your child...I can't imagine how that must feel, but this isn't over! We're still alive! We're still fighting!"

"And still stupid enough to think that we can win," Albus added before taking another gulp of vodka and a puff of his cig.

James was taken back. He couldn't have ever imagined his brother acting like this.

"Why are you talking like this? I know your upset but this isn't like you! Aurora's barely alive and you haven't even been to see her once! It's like you don't even care!"

"I don't..." he put down the vodka and held out his cigarette, "you see this..."

He then proceeded to use his own hand as an ashtray and stub out the cigarette on his palm without even twitching.

"I can't feel it...I can't feel anything. I can't guilt, I can't remorse, I can't feel sad, I can't feel pain...he took more than just my powers when he ripped a piece of my soul out..." Albus said hauntingly.

James's eyes went wide. He knew Albus had been seriously damaged by what had happened but he didn't realize just how bad. Voldemort had literally stolen Albus's reason for becoming the Colossus in the first place. He taken his ability to love and care about everything.

"So that's it..." James asked in whispered shock, "that's the end of the Colossus? No more destiny? No more saving the world?"

"Fuck destiny and fuck the world," Albus growled and picked up the vodka bottle.

James was so stunned that he couldn't even speak. He stood up and walked out of the galley, not even wanting to look at the broken shell that used to be his brother.

_**London Underground**_

_**London, England**_

_**January 7**__**th**___

_**2023 A.D.**_

Lily was walking at the rear of the group followed only by Amelia who was watching their backs. Despite the illuminated wands, it was still difficult to see more than a few yards in front. Athena was at the front keeping an eye on Mathis who was still giving directions of where to go next.

Nobody was speaking and Lily could feel her thoughts drifting back towards her father. She pushed her lips together and tried to keep them at bay, but it was difficult. She started walking more quickly and caught up to Jared.

"So what did you do?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You must have done something to get yourself on a prison transport. What did you do?" she asked again.

"Murder," he said simply.

"What was your sentence?"

"Four years," Jared stated.

"Four years for murder?" Lily's eyebrows climbed.

"No, four years for smuggling weapons for a Russian arms dealer, but...those guns would have almost certainly killed quite a few people somewhere...so murder is my crime," he explained in a slightly down trodden tone.

For a second Lily wondered if he was talking about Vlad, the friendly arms dealer that had supplied Albus with enough weapons to start a small war.

"You don't seem to be very proud of yourself...why did you do it?" Lily questioned.

"Because I can't say no to money," Jared grinned, "of course, money doesn't seem to matter now."

"Yeah...I used to think that boys and gossip and make-up were important..." Lily murmured.

Jared laughed, "well, your a kid, of course you think that stuffs important! When your young, the only things that are important are the things that make you happy...then, slowly, bit by bit, you start to wise up and before you know it, you're putting your own happiness aside on a day to day basis...kinda like what your doing now."

"Just trying to survive," Lily grumbled.

"You didn't have to let us out...why did you?" Jared asked.

Lily sighed, "because, it's what my father would have done."

"Who's your father?"

"Harry Potter...I mean he was...he's dead now," she looked down at her feet.

"Just because he's dead, doesn't stop him from being your father. My dad used to get drunk and hit me with a wrench, doesn't mean he wasn't my dad...family's important," Jared stated.

"Yeah..." Lily said looking up at Hugo, Teddy, Victoire and Dominique.

"Potter...ring's a bell," Jared's eyebrows had furled as he tried to remember where he heard the name.

"You probably heard of his son...Albus Potter," Lily helped.

"Albus Potter...as in Albus _the Colossus _Potter?" Jared was now looking at Lily like she was a suitcase full of money.

"Yep."

"The Colossus is your brother?!" he blurted.

"That's right," Lily said simply.

"Huh...I always thought he was an alien. So well where the hell is he?"

Lily went back to staring at the ground, "I don't know...but I hope he stays away," she whispered.

"He won't," Athena stated loudly, "he'll com back for us."

She would never believe otherwise. Her faith and love for Albus was what was keeping her going, as long as she had that, she never stop fighting.

"Yeah...he's stubborn like that," Hugo added.

"And stupid," Mathis mumbled.

"Shut your mouth!" Athena growled at him.

"What? He's lost his powers, how the hell is he gonna save us without them?" Mathis shot back.

"Wait? He can't fly anymore?!" Webster gasped.

"It doesn't matter! He'll find away to stop him! That's what he does!" Athena barked.

"I hope you're right..." Mathis sighed.

"Which way?" Athena demanded.

"Left...err...no wait...right," Mathis said.

"Do you even know where the fuck you're going?!" Hugo hissed.

"Oh please, this route hasn't been used since World War II!" he complained.

Luckily he was right. They followed the tunnel around to the right until they came to a door that was fixed into the wall. From there, they moved through a corridor lined with pipes until they came to a ladder.

Lily found herself very thankful that Aurora had forced them to do physical training when she was teaching the D.A. Going down four ladders in a row might sound easy but it becomes tiring when you're carrying twenty kilos of weapons and armor.

She had no idea how far underground they were but it must have been approaching the mile mark. Amazingly there was another set of underground rail tunnels down there, but they looked like they hadn't been used in a very long time. During World War II, masses of people had taken shelter from bombing raids in those tunnels.

They followed the old tracks until they reached the disused station that they led to.

Everything was covered in dust and spider webbing. There weren't even any foot prints on the ground since no one had actually been down there in decades.

"This is it," Mathis said, climbing off the tracks and onto the platform.

At the end of the platform there was a door that looked like it must have weighed about three tonnes. It was re-enforced plate steel and didn't actually have a handle. It was strangely ironic that like Hogwarts, the Cleric used to use a train station to get to their base.

"I'm gonna need a hand with this, it hasn't been opened in a very long time," Mathis said.

Teddy pulled his wand and muttered an incantation at the door. The dust fell off the front of it as it moaned open but stopped once it had moved about two inches. Teddy looked very confused and studied his new wand.

"It's the pulse. It's still disrupting magic," Scorpius said.

"Amelia, we might need a hand with this," Hugo said approaching the door.

Teddy, Scorpius and Hugo joined Mathis in trying to force the door open but it barely moved a millimeter. They struggled again to no avail, until Amelia walked over. She shoved him out of the way and grabbed hold of the door. With her enhanced strength and a few minutes of pushing, they finally got the door open enough to squeeze through.

Like the rest of London, England and probably much of Europe, the Temple was completely pitch black and powerless. The massive generators that powered lights and computers were sitting silently against the wall just next to entrance.

"Welcome to my underground lair," Mathis said before chuckling.

Everyone just glared at him.

"Can't see a thing," Hugo mumbled.

"There's some glow sticks in the equipment room in the back but watch your step because -"

A great roaring rumbling sound filled the Temple and slowly the huge spot lights flickered to life. The group turned to see Athena standing next to the generators with her hand pressed to the side. They were shocked. She had literally just powered up the entire place just by touching them.

"Yeah...I can do that," Athena said simply.

"How the hell _did_ you do that?!" the female convict asked.

"The pulse couldn't shut down my ability, so I pretty sure I can power up anything that's down," she said quickly.

"I could do with some powering up," Hugo winked at her.

Athena glared at him while Amelia, Lily, Victoire and Dominique rolled their eyes at the same time.

"You're one of those mutants, aren't you?!" Webster stated happily.

"We're called Anomalies!" Dominique growled.

"And you, you're two?" Jared asked Amelia.

"No, she's a sexy vampire," Hugo grinned as Jared looked worried and took a step back.

"Yeah, well I'm Jess," the female convict stated, "and that's Fish," she nodded to the stocky convict, "he doesn't talk much."

Fish just nodded.

"Athena, that's Amelia, Scorpius, Teddy, Victoire, Dominique and the boy who'll bonk anything over there is Hugo," Athena said.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Jess nodded at Mathis.

"Mathis...I didn't bother introducing him because now that we're here...I'm gonna let Amelia kill him," Athena stated.

A wild murderous grin crept up onto Amelia's face.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Teddy objected.

"We never said that we would let him live, we just said that we'd let him out," Athena said simply.

"And you were worried about us being murderers," Jared mumbled.

"Wow, didn't see that coming," Mathis remarked sarcastically, "you want me to fix up her hand before you kill me or can you handle that?" he nodded to Victorie.

"What are you, a doctor?" Webster asked.

"Yeah."

"You know, having a doc on our side, my not be a bad thing..." Jared suggested. It didn't escape anyone's notice that he wasn't comfortable allow him to simply be executed.

There was a short drawn out silence.

"Fine, he stays," Lily said loudly.

"The hell he does!" Amelia snarled.

"Amelia, I don't know about you, but I don't even know first aid! Jared's right, a doctor is good thing to have at this moment. If he becomes a problem, you can kill him later," everyone seemed quite taken back by Lily's take charge attitude, "you," she glared at Mathis, "fix up my cousins hand!"

"I'll need some supplies. Follow me," he said walking away.

"Who the hell is that?!" Scorpius blurted as he saw the huge stone statue of Illyria.

"The person that built this place. Illyria," Mathis said.

"Illyria's a myth," Teddy snorted.

"Who's Illyria?" Jared whispered to Lily.

"The first witch. Supposedly the goddess of magic," she said quickly.

"Whoever built this place certainly believed in her. We carbon dated the statue, it's over five thousand years old. While we were running around in loin cloth and trying to create the wheel, she had circled the globe and built a machine that could seek out Anomalies anywhere on the planet. She wasn't just the first witch...she was the first Cleric," he smiled.

"Did she make the Prophecy?" Scorpius asked.

Mathis stopped and turned around to face them.

"No...Sophia made the Prophecy."

_**Malfoy Maison**_

_**Istanbul, Turkey**_

_**August 4th**_

_**2100 A.D.**_

Anya shot up from her bed with wide eyes. She looked around quickly but stopped the moment she saw Scorpius snoozing in a chair next to her. He had obviously been delegated the task of watching over her. Then she suddenly remembered what had happened before she fell asleep.

She looked at her hand again, expecting to see some kind of evidence that this wasn't a dream, but found none. For a second she entertained the idea that the whole thing had been in her head and that she wasn't an anomaly, she didn't heal from basilisk poison, Dominique never came to visit and even that Albus's life story was somehow a fabrication of her mind.

Those possibilities vanished the moment she began to hear raised voices from below.

Although the mansion was huge, it had a nasty habit of carrying sound very well. It echoes off the walls and through the spacious rooms allowing you to pick up an idea of what was happening all over the place.

Anya crept out of bed and past Scorpius, heading for the landing. Once she got to the top of the stairs she could hear much more clearly.

"What right do you have to push this on her?!" Dawns enraged voice demanded.

"What right do you have to keep hiding the truth from her life this?" Dominique's voice was much more calm and calculated.

"She's a child!"

"Not for long. And once she matures, with her ability, she'll be virtually indestructible."

Anya was taken back by that. _Virtually Indestructible_, she found it difficult to comprehend the idea that she couldn't die. It must have been an exaggeration.

"That wouldn't stop you from putting ideas in her head though, would it?!" Dawns voice was raw with anger.

"You called me Dawn, not the other way round. If you didn't want me around her, you shouldn't have invited me."

"I asked you here so that you could protect her! Not turn her into your puppet!" Dawn scathed.

"I am protecting her, but the longer you keep the truth from her, the greater the damage will be when she finds out," Dominique reasoned.

"She's not ready for this!" Dawn cried, "but that doesn't matter to you, does it?!"

"No, it doesn't. I don't answer to you, I answer to Aria and she's says it's time for Anya to know the truth," Dominique had a strange sort of power in her voice.

"Still the ever obedient little servant, aren't you!"

"That's right, I am. If Aria asks me to do something, I don't question, I don't argue, I obey. It's that simple."

"Aria doesn't give a shit about you or my daughter! She just wants her own ends accomplished!" Dawn hissed.

"Yes. And Aria's ends include keeping Anya safe...so, you can either tell her the truth and help her deal with it, or you can just hand her over to Max. It's your choice."

"In other words, I don't have a choice! Max is never getting near her!" Dawn growled.

"Then you know what you have to do..." Dominique said simply.

Then was a short silence in which Anya could imagine the kind of looked they were exchanging. She was so shocked my the information she had just heard that she wasn't sure that she actually wanted to know the truth. Suddenly Max was involved and now some one named Aria. It was frightening.

"Anya, would you like to come down now?" Dominique's voice rattled inside her skull. It was so sudden that Anya actually bit her tongue when she jumped.

She cursed herself for that. She was usually so good at eavesdropping, but there was no such thing when it came to Dominique. She knew you were there before you did. No one could sneak up on the worlds most powerful telepath.

Slowly she made her way down the stairs and into the huge living room. Dominique was sitting in the large comfortable chair that Scorpius usually sat in while Dawn was standing against the wall and couldn't seem to bring herself to look at her daughter. She was breathing heavily and her cheeks were flush from frustration.

"I'm sorry..." Anya whispered.

"We're the ones that should be sorry, Anya," Dominique smiled softly.

"Mum..."

"I'm so sorry Anya...I never wanted this for you..." Dawn's voice was hollow and scared.

"It's not your fault Dawn. Many of us were born into difficult lives. You and your daughter are special," Dom said softly.

"I didn't want my life to hurt yours Anya, I'm sorry..." Dawn whispered.

"We knew you were an Anomaly since the day you were conceived," Dominique started. She knew Dawn was having a hard time with this and decided to start for her, "but we didn't know what you would be able to do until now. I think we should have though...given your mothers ability."

Anya's eyes locked onto her mother who was still looking away. She knew that Dawn was trying to hide her tears from her daughter.

"Mum..?" Anya sniffled. Seeing her mother so saddened was causing her to well up with guilt. She couldn't help thinking that this was somehow her fault.

"Hyper kinetic energy transfer," Dominique stated, "she's a super charger."

"A super charger?!" Anya yelped.

"Your mother can transfer massive amounts of energy into what ever she touches. She can charge anything she wants...like right now, she doesn't want me reading her thoughts so she's charged her cerebral cortex to keep me out," Dawn turned to Dominique and glared, "She can charge a battery into powering an entire building, she can charge a persons muscles and make them strong enough to pick up a car, she can super charge another Anomaly and make their ability a hundred times more powerful...she can even flood things with so much energy that they become unstable and explode."

"Your scaring her!" Dawn hissed.

"That's amazing!" Anya blurted causing Dawn to look at her like she was insane. Dominique simply raised her eyebrows and smiled.

"Your mother is a very powerful Anomaly Anya, more powerful than she'd like to believe."

"I don't need to be praised Dom!" Dawn scowled.

"She can super charge anything," Dominique ignored Dawn and turned back to Anya, "but your nervous system is constantly charged, allowing you to heal from just about anything. Once you mature, I wouldn't be surprised if you could transfer that energy and heal others."

Anya's jaw dropped. She was having a hard enough time with the idea that she can heal from a major wound in a few seconds, let alone healing others.

"But she doesn't like what she is...she thinks that Anomalies are simply too dangerous...she hates her own kind."

For the first time in her life, Anya saw Dominique's eyes flash with anger and resentment. Somehow she had always believed that Dominique was immune to those kind of feelings. She thought that she was too smart, too calculated, too powerful for anything to effect her.

Then it suddenly occurred to her that this was the reason that Dawn hated Albus so much.

"Oh no...she hates Albus for a very different reason," Dominique's fearsome voice said before Anya could even say a word.

"Shut up!" Dawn hissed.

"It's time to come clean Dawn!"

"NO! He will not be a part of our lives!" she screamed.

"He'll always be a part of your life! No matter how much you try to forget it! Albus, Max, Aria, they are part of your world and that will never change!" Dominique growled.

"I don't understand..." Anya's sweet and scared voice sniffled, "who is Aria?"

"Yeah Dom! Who's Aria?" Dawn rumbled through her teeth.

Dominique took a breath and composed herself. She turned to Anya. "Aria is who I work for. She's one of the good guys."

"Bullshit!"

Anya's eyes went wide. Her mother never swore in front of her. This was getting bad.

"You don't have to trust her Dawn but she _is_ trying to protect you."

"What about Max?" Anya asked.

To her, Max was just a name on TV. She heard gruesome tales about how dangerous Max was and had images of some great hulking monstrous looking man with a deformed face in her mind, but she had never actually seen him. She knew that Dominique was helping the government to try and stop him. She was one of the only people in the world that Max wouldn't mess with.

"It's complicated..." Dawn said quietly.

"Then uncomplicate it for her Dawn," Dominique ordered.

"She doesn't need to know this!" Dawn shot back.

"Either you tell her or I will!"

There was a pause of silence between them that seemed to last forever. Finally Dawn looked at her daughter.

"Max...Max's real name is Angel..." she said slowly.

Anya looked shocked. Max was a girl?

"She likes to play around with her image. Likes to confuse people, make them think that they are hunting a man. She never uses her real name," Dominique explained after reading the question in Anya's mind.

"Angel is building an army...an army of Anomalies. Obviously she wants us to join her. We refused, but because of what we can do, she wouldn't give up. She's trying to find a way to make us join, so she's going to...sh-she's..." Dawn was finding it hard to speak.

"But...you can stop her, right?" Anya looked from Dawn to Dominique quickly, "everyone says that she's afraid of you!"

"Angel isn't afraid of anything...I can hold her off...but I can't stop her," Dominique admitted.

Again Anya's belief that Dominique was all powerful had made the truth harder to bare.

"Wh-why? What can she do?"

"Angel has acquired many abilities. Her gift is unlike anything we've ever seen before. So far, neither magic or science has been able to explain it," Dom said.

"We call it adaptive reincarnation," Dawn breathed. She looked at her daughter who's eyes were begging for an explanation., "basically...whatever kills her, makes her stronger."

"You burn her alive, she'll resurrect and return with the power to control fire, drown her, she'll come back and have power over the oceans..." Dominique added.

"When she last caught up with us, Dominique managed to break into her mind and wipe her memories, but not all of them. She's starting to piece together the information that's left and remembers why she was after us in the first place," Dawn continued.

"Which is?" Anya added quickly.

"She's wants our abilities. She wants to force us into a fight so that we can kill her. If she succeeds, not only will she gain telepathy, but she'll be able to use Dawn's ability to empower it. Her mind will be able to stretch half way around the world. She could influence world leaders, shift the balance of power, make people do and think whatever she wanted."

"And Aria is trying to stop her?" Anya guessed.

"Aria has a plan in place to stop Angel, but it's going to take time. We have to keep you safe until then," Dominique stated.

"Me?"

"she's been after you since the day you were born...she wants to use you against me..."

Anya asked the simplest and yet the hardest question with just two words. "Why you?"

"She...she thinks that I betrayed her...that I abandoned her..." Dawn's voice shook, "she's my sister..."

If it weren't for Anya's already enhanced body, she probably would have passed out at hearing that.

_**The Temple**_

_**London, England**_

_**January 12**__**th**___

_**2023 A.D.**_

Dominique and Victoire were sitting on the floor and going through the food stores. Although there was quite a bit and it would like a while if they rationed it, it would nevertheless eventually run out and that meant venturing out of the Temple to find more. It was a scary thought since none of them had taken one step outside the massive steel door that protected them in almost a week.

The first day after finding the Temple had been taken up mostly by sleep. They had converted the holding cells in the back into basic living quarters and just after, the exhaustion of the events before started to hit. The adrenaline and urgency of everything else had faded away and most of the survivors fallen into deep, dreamless slumbers.

That was the only peaceful night they got though. In the days after, Lily had woken up in cold sweats from nightmares on several occasions and after seeing the black bags under the eyes of some of the others, she was pretty sure that she wasn't alone.

The nightmares were part of the reason that they decided to get to work in fortifying their safe heaven. While Dominique and Victoire busied themselves with various stock taking tasks, the others discussed possible ways to increase security. Eventually it was Mathis that came up with the most sound plan.

Since neither Victoire or Dominique had any experience or knowledge in that kind of thing, they excused themselves from the discussion in order to make themselves useful in other ways. It stop Dom from picking up the odd stray thought from any of them.

They speculated that it was because of the heightened emotional stress that her Telepathy was starting to show itself more often. Unfortunately, since she had no real control over it, nasty headaches and quick tempers often showed themselves.

She gritted her teeth as she felt a new batch of whispers enter he mind. Sometimes they were soft and barely noticeable, other times, it was like someone was screaming into her ears.

"There's some painkillers in the lab," Victoire suggested. She had become quite good at knowing when her sister's thoughts were hurting her.

"I already took some," Dom huffed.

"Try the counting thing."

"It doesn't work!"

"It worked yesterday," Victoire smiled.

"Fine!" Dom barked and started counting. Mathis had suggested she try doing her times tables inside her own head whenever it got bad. If she could focus her mind on one thing, it might block out any other thoughts.

In the main hall of the temple, the rest of the survivors had gathered around a table and were going over the plan. Mathis had managed to dig out a map of the tunnels from one of the files rooms which would certainly come in handy. It showed them that the tunnels at both ends of the station outside eventually branched off into others, leaving a lot more ways for the enemy to stumble across their position.

"I think our best bet is to split into two groups," Teddy suggested, "chances are, the first detonation will bring some unwanted attention. Maybe not from the surface, but if those things are wondering around in the tunnels..."

"They could be outside the fucking door right now, we'd have no way of knowing," Jess grumbled.

"Well, the only way we're gonna find that out is by taking a look," Lily sighed.

"Bombs ready yet?" Amelia asked over her shoulder.

Just behind her, Fish was silently rigging up detonators to blocks of C4 explosives. They had caught a lucky break when it came to that. Not only did the temple have a large supply of explosives in the armory, but it turned out that Fish was in fact ex-EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal). He had been in the Royal Marines before an accident and following investigation had found him guilty of negligent homicide. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years imprisonment.

What exactly had occurred wasn't said and nobody asked, but it was clearly the reason that he didn't talk very often.

A few minutes later, he came back with two bags containing several IED's (Improvised Explosive Device). He pulled one of them out of the bag and showed it to the group. It was about the size of a sandwich with a small ring sticking out of the top.

"You're gonna need at least three of these to collapse one of the tunnels. Two on either side, near the floor, the third in center of the roof. These only have a thirty second delay," he pointed to the ring on the bomb, "works just like a grenade, just pull the pin. One will be enough to set off the other two so once it's in place, tie a bit of string around the ring, pull and run. It's that simple," he explained in a quiet hollow voice.

"All right, two teams," Teddy said looking back at the map, "Amelia, Webster, Fish and Scorpius, you'll come with me, we'll take tunnels twenty one and twenty two...Lily, you Hugo, Violet, Jared and Jess take tunnels fifteen and sixteen."

"And what am I doing in all this?" Athena asked with clear annoyance in her voice.

"Your staying here," Lily said simply.

"Excuse me?" Athena growled.

"I know you wanna help, but you're the only one that can power things up. We lose you and we're back to the stone age. We can't risk it," Lily explained.

"I can take care of myself! In fact, I seem to remember saving your ass, Lily!" Athena hissed. She was getting very pissed off, very quickly.

"Yes, you did. Now let me return the favor."

"Athena, you know exactly why you have to stay here," Mathis said, backing Lily up, "you might be the key to ending this war, you know that."

"This is bullshit!" she scathed before storming away from the group in a huff.

"That went well..." Hugo mumbled.

"She just wants to help. Trust me, I know what it's like to be treated like a child," Lily stated.

"Come on, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can come back," Teddy stated.

They grabbed their weapons and explosives and headed towards the door. Once everyone was ready, Hugo and Lily stood ready with their rifles while Amelia, Teddy, Scorpius and Jared pulled the steel door open. Once there was enough room, Hugo moved out first and covered one side of the station, as Lily moved out to do the same.

This was the first time they had been out of that door since they arrived. She had forgotten about the heavy dust, cobwebs and cold breeze that was waiting for them, but the worst thing was the silence. It was eerie not hearing anything except their own movements. It made every sound seem louder, like they were purposely trying to get noticed.

The others shuffled through the opening and stood ready with their guns. They waited for a few seconds, listening carefully to anything that might indicate movement, but there was nothing.

"Psst."

Lily turned around to see Amelia nod at the ground.

The dust on the floor had been disturbed since they were last there. There were signs of heavy, shuffled footsteps moving down the platform. More than one set as well. Someone or something had definitely been passed there. It was at this moment that it first occurred to her that the steel door must be sound proof because when they were inside, they weren't quiet.

They didn't have time for second thoughts. The two groups split off, moving down the dark track after lighting there newly working torches. They spread out and moved quietly down platform until they reach the tunnel. They stopped and listened again at the mouth of the tunnel for anything that could have meant activity.

The problem was that they didn't know how old the foot prints were. It could have happened just hours after they had first arrived or it could have been twenty minutes ago.

After they saw that the first leg of the tunnel was clear, they started to move up, hugging the walls.

"Lily," Hugo whispered.

"What?" she asked in an equally hushed tone.

"Why wouldn't Sophia have told us about the Prophecy?" he asked.

"Hugo, now is not the time to talk about this!" Violet hissed.

Unfortunately, Lily's mind had also been weighing heavily on that question. Speculating about actions that occurred almost two thousand years ago really wasn't a priority for them at the moment. Everything they had talked about so far had been about the present and how to survive the foreseeable future.

"I don't know," Lily said quietly.

"Trelawney never remembered when she made Prophecies. Maybe she forgot?" Hugo suggested.

"Sophia never struck me as the type of woman that forgets things," Violet sighed.

She was right. Sophia was practically omnipresent. Like Dumbledore, she seemed to always have the answers and the information, even if she didn't actually say them out loud. If that was true, then it meant that she had purposely lied about it and that made Lily wonder whether or not they could really trust Sophia.

"Not that this isn't fascinating, but could you guys shut the fuck up! I'm scared enough as it is!" Jess hissed from behind.

With that, they continued on in silence.

The tunnel was turning out to be a lot longer than it looked on the map and the further away from the temple they got, the more anxious Lily was becoming. After about another five minutes of walking, they finally reached section where the tunnel split off into two separate directions.

They took the one on the left first, moving up about twenty feet before stopping.

Jess and Jared attached a charge on each side of the wall while Violet tied a piece of string around the pin of the third. The roof suddenly seemed a lot higher than they had expected, but that was surprising. What you hope for and what you get were two very different things in these kind of situations.

"Violet, you're the tallest. Jared, Hugo, lift her up," Lily ordered.

Jess and Lily covered them while Hugo and Jared walked over to Violet.

"You grab my ass, I'll break your nose!" Violet warned Hugo.

Before he could respond, the shallow sound of an explosion followed by a distant rumble was heard in the distance. Teddy's team had blasted their first tunnel closed.

"Come on, hurry up!" Jared whispered.

He and Hugo took hold of Violets legs and lifted. Despite her tallness, she was actually very light but that wasn't surprising considering her slender body. She reached above her head, but was still barely high enough to reach the roof. Hugo and Jared struggled but managed to lift her even higher.

Finally, she carefully placed the charge against the stone. Jared and Hugo brought her back down while she carefully held onto the string that was attached to pin.

The others ran back down the tunnel as quickly as they could and took cover. Unfortunately, even after being extended, the string was only about ten feet in length. Violet got as far as she could before the slack ran out. She took a deep breath and then yanked the end.

The pin dropped out and she took off running. A few seconds later, she was back at the fork in the tracks. She joined the group in crouching down against the wall and covering her ears.

Waiting those few seconds was unbearable. Not only did it seem to last forever, but they all knew that once the charge went off, they would have even less time to plant the second ones.

Another moment went by with them holding their breaths, expecting the timer to run out any second.

Lily gasped in terror. What if it was a dud?

_**KABOOM!**_

The noise had been so much worse than they expected. So bad that Lily felt the horrible strain on her eardrums. The ground and walls rumbled as the tunnel was suddenly illuminated in orange light. Dust fell from the ceiling and the sound of heavy rocks crashing into each other echoed behind. Then the dust came.

It rolled down the tunnel like a wave and washed over all of them. It was blinding. Lily looked around but could barely make out the people around her.

Once the rumbling had stopped, the coughing started. It was like breathing charcoal.

"Everybody okay?" Hugo asked loudly.

"Yeah," Lily said, standing and moving towards the blurred object that she believed was her cousin.

"If we hadn't been noticed before, we have now. Come on, we need to hurry!" Violet coughed out.

But that wasn't as easy as it sounded. The dust made it extremely difficult to see which was they were pointing, let alone find the other tunnel. They scurried around the walls, looking for a corner but it was like it had completely disappeared.

"This way!" Jared called out.

They followed the sound of his voice and after a few feet, found that the dust was clearing due to the breeze coming from the open tunnel. When they had finally gotten through it, Lily turned to see that all of them were now gray and black from the cloud. Her eyes burned and watered and she coughed up the rest of the dust in her lungs and spat on the floor.

Now they had to do that all over again.

This time they were so cautious. They ran up the tunnel as quickly as they could until they found a good spot to place the charges. They followed the same routine with Jared and Jess planting the explosives on the walls while Violet prepared the one for the roof.

Lily and Jess covered them as Hugo and Jared prepared to lift Violet again, but before they could, a scratching sound grabbed their attention.

Silhouetted in the darkness of the tunnel was a human shape, standing in the middle of the tracks. Then two more moved up behind it. They stepped into the low torch light. Lily gasped as she saw those metallic black eyes.

The infected screamed with a horrible chainsaw like sound and charged at her.

"Contact!" Jess yelled and opened fire.

The three infected weren't alone. More, maybe a dozen came running out of the darkness and bullets cut down the front runners., the tunnels amplifying the noise of the gunfire.

"Come on! Come on!" Violet yelled.

Hugo and Jared lifted her up high. The panic and adrenaline made her seem even lighter this time as Lily and Jess continued to fire. She reached up and suck the charge to the roof, but her hands were shaking so much that gripped the string and pulled too hard. The pin popped out right in front of her face causing her eyes to go wide in horror.

"I pulled the cord! RUN!" she screamed.

Hugo and Jared practically dropped her. They pulled their weapons and fired off a few rounds before retreating. Lily and Jess bolted down the tunnel, right behind the others as more screams of infected humans echoed around them.

_**KABOOM!**_

Everything seemed to go white. The sound of the explosion disappeared and Lily found herself gliding through the air in slow motion. The shockwave had been so powerful that it had lifted her off her feet and sent her flying helplessly forward. Not a single thought entered her mind other than the belief that she was dead.

Her body hit the ground hard and everything faded away into a dizzy blackness.

"Lily!" a distant echo moved through her ears causing her eyes to flutter open. The first thing she saw was the dense dust cloud drifting around her then something else.

Hugo was standing over her. It looked like he was shouting at her, but all she could her was a high-pitch ringing sound.

Pain suddenly hit her body. Her left knee had collided with the tracks and she was pretty sure that it was broken, but nevertheless, the pain informed her that she was actually still alive. She groaned and slowly tried to sit up.

Hugo's lips continued to move but his words were almost in audible.

"I can't hear you..." Lily mumbled out.

She had blood coming out of her ears and nose and her eyes were still having a hard time focusing. She reached down and held her knee which was also covered in blood. It felt misshapen and and almost alien, like it wasn't actually her knee.

She looked over and saw Jess leaned against the tunnel wall. She had a hefty gash on her head and seemed just as dazed as Lily. Everyone else seemed shaken, but okay.

Hugo said something muddled and then Jared was standing over her as well. The two crouched down and picked Lily off the ground while Violet helped Jess stand. The group retreated down the tunnel quickly. The bumpiness of being carried by the two boys wasn't helping her head, but a few sounds had started to creep into her ears.

A few seconds, or it could have been minutes later, see saw a blurred image of Teddy running up to her. His face was covered in dirt and dust as well, but he and his group seemed all right. After more dizzying sights and sounds, Lily eventually saw Mathis standing over her.

He shouted something at Teddy and was then handed a wand. He waved it in front of her face and few times and she saw strange lights moving around above her. With her dazed condition, see those had been so psychedelic that she finally blacked out.

_**The Maltov**_

_**Atlantic Ocean**_

_**68 miles west of Westport, Ireland.**_

_**January 12**__**h**___

_**2023 A.D.**_

Everyday they were drifting further and further away from England with no control.

With the possibility of getting the engines started becoming more and more distant, Lincoln, James, Lynx and Rose had taken to searching the ship for anything that might be useful. They were currently searching the cargo hold. Inside were several cargo containers that hadn't been offloaded and they were clinging to the small hope that one of them contained machine parts or something else that might help them.

So far, in the three containers they had already opened they had found one that was full to the brim with packets of instant noodles, another that held several dozen Egyptian rugs and the third that had hand-crafted wooden rocking chairs. Apart from the noodles, they had found nothing that could help them.

Lincoln pried open the lock on the forth container with his crowbar and undid the latch while Rose shuffled around inside the rug container, seeing if there was anything else at the back.

The forth container had a bunch of large red boxes inside that looked mildly promising. Lincoln and James walked over to the nearest box while Lynx held a lit wand up for them. Apart from the port holes, there were no working lights on the ship.

Lincoln fiddled with the latch on the box and opened the cover. Inside were a couple of snowboard, skies and ice boots. The boxes were full of recreational equipment that had probably been stolen from a ski lodge somewhere.

"What's that?" James asked, pointing to the bottom of the box.

Underneath the gear were a few brown blocks that had been wrapped in plastic. Lincoln pulled out on of the blocks and looked at it for a second. He pulled at the plastic on one of the corners until a powdery brown substance started to fall out. He got some on the end of his finger and tasted it.

"That's heroin," he said simply.

"Looks like weapons aren't the only thing that Vlad smuggles," James remarked.

"Wonderful, we can get high and go skiing!" Lynx spat in a grumpy sarcastic tone. Her mood had been pretty bad for the last few days, ever since Aurora started getting sick.

"Anything in that one?" Rose called out.

"Nothing helpful," James yelled back.

"Lets check the other two," Lincoln said after throwing the block of heroin back into the box and closing the lid.

They did the same again, Lincoln breaking the lock open while Lynx held the light. They opened the large metal doors revealing something quite beautiful, but nevertheless useless. A 1991 Audi Avus Quattro Concept car that was probably worth about five hundred thousand pounds.

"Great, we can drive out of here!" Lynx huffed.

"All right! Your attitude is started to be a pain in the ass!" James growled at her.

"Well, I'm sorry that I'm not as fucking deluded as you people!" she shot back.

"Fine! Swim back to England if you don't want to be here!"

"Hey! ENOUGH!" Lincoln yelled shutting the feuding teenagers up.

Although they had only been onboard for five days, frustration and despair were nagging away at tall of them causing tempers to run high. Lynx was extremely concerned for Aurora and didn't like leaving her side. Especially when she only helped them remind themselves of how hopeless their situation was.

James had been touchy ever since he had spoken to Albus. None of them asked what had been said, but James refused to go back and talk to him again.

After they calmed down and checked the final container, they finally found something that they could use. It contained several boxes of liquid glow sticks. Not something that could help them get the engines started but at least they could use them as lights around the ship.

In order to give people some time alone, Lincoln ordered everyone to grab a box each and spread out around the vessel, attaching the sticks to stairways, ladders and ceilings. He hoped that the boring repetitive job might give them some time to cool off.

Nobody bothered to tell Albus what they had found.

The only time he ventured out from his cabin was to search for more booze or cigarettes that were stashed in several places around the ship. Anyone that came across him was ignored.

At the moment, he was lying on the floor of his room while an empty vodka bottle rolled back and forth with the swaying of the ship. He wasn't quite passed out yet but he was certainly getting there.

"Albus," a male voice said.

He slowly opened his eyes and saw a pair of feet planted in front of him.

"Go away," Albus mumbled.

"Away? I just go here," the voice suddenly started to sound very familiar.

This time Albus raised his head a bit so that he could look at who it was. His glazed over eyes got wider in confusion.

"Dad?"

"Hi Al," Harry smiled.

"You're dead..." Albus blurted.

"Yes, I am," Harry admitted simply.

Albus looked over at the rolling vodka bottle and decided that it must be the source of this hallucination.

"Guess again," Harry said.

"What are you doing here?" Albus asked and he groggily picked himself off the floor and leaned against his bunk.

"You need to get up Albus, you've got work to do," he stated.

"No...I think I'll stay here for a while..." he said grumpily. Maybe it wasn't a drunken hallucination after all, instead, it was a manifestation of his own guilty subconscious.

"This isn't you Albus. You're not a quitter. Your friends need your help," Harry wasn't pleading. It sounded more like he was confidently stating the facts.

"They're better off without me..."

"If that were true, you'd have never been chosen in the first place."

"Chosen...chosen for what? To fail?" Albus said with contempt as he reached for the half empty pack of cigarettes on the table.

"Chosen to be the Colossus," Harry said proudly.

"The Colossus is dead," Albus spat.

"Not dead...just missing in action. Your job isn't done yet, Albus."

"Give it to someone else."

"You know that can't happen. Once you're chosen, it never ends."

"Then I was chosen by mistake!" Albus barked.

"She doesn't make mistake," Harry said simply.

Albus looked at him with a sort of curious boredom, "who's she?"

"You know who she is. She's the one that gave you your power. Her name is Aria," Harry said softly.

Albus chuckled in denial, "the door has a name now?"

Harry laughed, "the door is just a door. She's the one behind the door."

"And she sent my deceased father to give me a pep talk?" he didn't believe a word of it.

"She thinks you need a push in the right direction."

"Why didn't she just come herself?"

"Because it doesn't work that way. Aria only talks to certain people, people that were chosen to talk to her. You're not one of those people Albus, you were chosen for something else. You were chosen to protect this world," Harry explained.

"Oh, please," Albus snorted.

"Aria can't make you do anything Albus, she chose you but now it has to be your choice. If you choose to stay here, doing nothing but drinking yourself into one drunken stupor after another, then everyone you care about will die and you do care about them Albus...no matter what's happened to you, you haven't lost the ability to care," he stated.

"I beg to differ," Albus said as he lit his cigarette.

"It's your choice Albus...but the people you love and that love you will not survive unless you help them," he said sadly, "Lynx will be the first to die...she's already getting sick. You can save her."

"And how would you know that?"

"Aria told me... If this is a hallucination or some kind of trick, then Lynx will be just fine, but if it's not...well, why don't you go ask her how she's feeling?"

Albus snorted again, looked away and rolled his eyes. This was ridiculous.

"And if she's sick? What happens th -" Albus stopped mid sentence.

Harry had vanished.

Albus really couldn't be bothered with this. He had dreamed the future before, but he always knew when that happened. The visions of the future felt way more real and worrying than normal dreams and nightmares. This didn't feel like anything. Just some silly drunken moment when he thought he was talking to his dead father. He looked over at the empty bottle that was still swaying from side to side.

He had to go and find another drink anyway...if he ran into Lynx along the way, he'd ask her how she was.

After some effort, he got to his feet. Strangely enough, the gentle rocking of the ship seemed to counter balance his own dizziness, or maybe he was just developing an immunity to vodka. He walked out of his cabin and down the darkened corridor towards the galley.

So far, he had found three bottles in kitchen so he figured he start there. Unfortunately he only had his lighter to help him search in the darkness. He gripped the railings of the stairway and pulled himself up. He moved along another corridor until something at the end caught his attention.

There was a strange green glow coming the around the corner. Albus looked perplex, but decided to investigate. If they had gotten some of the power going, then maybe he'd have an easier time of searching for booze.

As he turned the corner he saw that the glow was coming from a small green tube that held illuminated liquid. A line of them had been attached to a pipe on the left side of the corridor and just at the bottom, Lynx was attaching another.

"My god, it lives," she spat sarcastically.

"Where did these come from?" Albus slurred.

"Found em down below. We can't get this rusty piece of shit to move in the right direction, but at least we can make it look pretty!" she huffed with even more sarcasm than before.

"Err...Lynx..." Albus couldn't believe he was actually going to ask, "are you feeling okay?"

Lynx looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Do you care?" she scathed.

"I...just...askin' how you feelin'," he said in a bored tone.

Lynx snorted and went back to attaching another glow stick, "I'm peachy, Albus!" she hissed.

Albus just nodded and rolled his eyes. He knew it was ridiculous. He turned around a decided to get make to his vodka hunt.

"Apart from fact that my best friend is in a coma, your annoying brother, this floating bathtub and pain in the ass stomach bug, I'm walking on sunshine!" she grumbled behind him.

Albus stopped in his tracks. His eyes were stuck between confusion and denial. He turned around, "stomach bug?"


	4. The Scars are in the Mail

_**Diagon Alley**_

_**London, England**_

_**June 18**__**th**_

_**1994 A.D.**_

Scampering through dark musty alley ways, the rat finally found it's way onto the main road of Diagon Alley. The place was almost completely devoid of life at this time of night so staying out of sight was easy. He moved down the street, hugging the corners of the walls and shifting in between any clutter that could conceal him.

Finally he found what he was looking for. He quickly moved to the side of the door and began scaling the drain pipe next to it. Even with nine fingers, it wasn't difficult to reach the top. From there he moved across the roof until he saw a small opening between the roof tiles.

It was strange how memorable the shop was once he was back inside it. He scuttled down the stairs and into the main shop floor. After a few seconds of checking around he decided it was clear. He morphed back into his human form.

Peter slowly crept across the floor and moved behind the counter. He quickly but quietly searched through a few unlocked draws.

"Come on! Where is it?!" he growled under his breath, "Yes!"

He pulled the large cloak from the bottom draw and held it up to examine it. It had a few small holes in it but that wouldn't be much of a problem, especially if he was moving at night. His biggest concern was that it could be cursed, considering that most of the items at Borgin & Burkes were. It had no doubt been enchanted by some kind of dark magic but that didn't matter either.

He'd have to take a closer look at it before trying it on, but there was no doubt that he would need it to escape the country. He stuffed the invisibility cloak inside his jacket then morphed back into his Animagus form. The rat traveled out the exact same way it got in. Back up the stairs, up onto the shelf, out through the hole in the roof and over to the gutter.

He moved quickly down the pipe, his nails making tiny scratching sounds as he went. He reached the bottom and was just about to make bolt back across the street when he suddenly felt a hand close around his body.

He was lifted into the air while she struggled for dear life.

"Going somewhere, Peter?" a cool female voice asked.

She brought the struggling rat around and looked at his face. For a second he stopped squirming when he saw how beautiful she was.

"You know, your in a lot of trouble Peter," she smiled, "Dumbledore, Sirius, Harry...they all know what you've done."

Peter started squirming again.

"You don't have a friend in the world now, do you?" she mock frowned, "If I were you...right now, I'd be looking for a very big rock to hide under...or a master to stand behind..."

He stopped again.

"I hear Albania is nice this time of year," she smiled deviously.

She gently lowered him back down to the ground and released her grip on him.

"Tell Tom, Sophia says 'hi'" she said before walking away.

_The Maltov_

_Atlantic Ocean_

_68 miles west of Westport, Ireland._

_January 12__h_

_2023 A.D._

This was a very uncomfortable situation for Lynx to be in. Standing in the Cabin of a cold ship in nothing but her underwear while a slightly drunken man put his hands all over her was not something she was enjoying. If he hadn't explained exactly what he was going to do, she probably would have beaten the crap out of him.

Unfortunately, he had managed to evoke her paranoia when he started inquiring about her health for no apparent reason and truth be told, her stomach did not feel good at all. Thus far she had managed to do a pretty good job of hiding it, but it was starting to hurt when she move in certain ways and that was causing her temper to rise.

She actually felt a slight twinge of guilt about letting him do this. Every time his hands went to a place that she wouldn't usually be touched, her mind flashed back to Violet. She missed her so much.

Albus moved his fingers down her spine, slowly and gently, not wanting to miss anything.

"Been getting any dizzy spells or sensitivity to the light?" Albus asked.

"Asked the hermit..." Lynx mumbled. Albus jabbed his thumb into her back in annoyance. "No!"

"Diarrhea, Vomiting, Insomnia?"

"No," she grumbled.

His fingers moved across her ribs then down to her Kidneys. She sighed slightly remembering that that was the exact spot that Violet used to tickle her sometimes.

He took his hands away and stood in front of her. She couldn't bare to look him in the eye while he did something that was boarder line perverted. He started by feeling the glands on her next then the muscles on her shoulders. Lynx was quite a toned girl.

"Your period on time?" he asked.

"Yes!" she snapped.

His hands moved down until he was pressing against the top of her breasts. She winced slightly as he felt his way around the sides. Lynx jumped backwards and glared.

"Now listen -"

"For crying out loud, Lynx!" Albus growled, "I'm trying to make sure that you're not dying!"

She snarled and stepped forward. He softly felt around her breasts again, slipping his fingers under her bra. She cringed as his fingers brushed over her nipples and again tried to visualize them as Violets hand. She was much more gentle though.

He felt his way down her stomach and around her belly button pressing her skin in slightly, then moved up to her sides. Lynx suddenly let out hissed of pain as he pushed in her right side.

Albus stopped and looked at her. "that hurt?" he pushed in again.

"Ow! Yes!" she scathed.

"You still got your Appendix?" Albus asked.

"Last time I checked," she said simply.

"Well, don't get to attached to it. I'm gonna have to cut it out," he stated.

"What?!"

"Your Appendix is inflamed. If it ruptures you'll die. I have to remove it," he explained quickly.

"The hell you are! I'm not letting you cut me open!" she snarled.

"An Appendectomy is one of the easiest surgical procedures in the medical world, Lynx. I got it as part of my implant and I think we've got everything I'd need to perform one on board...or, you stay in agonizing pain and then die."

"Well..." the fact that she was still just in her underwear no longer seemed to matter to her. Now she couldn't believe that he needed to give her surgery, "what...what would you need to do?"

"I make a little incision here," he indicated his right side just above the groin, "and I cut out a tiny piece of your intestine that you don't even need. The Appendix is about as useful as a little toe, Lynx. You won't even know that it's gone."

"Ahh shit!" she blurted, "...when?"

"I'll get some stuff together. I'll need James, Rose and Lincoln to give me hand -"

"I thought you said you could do this?!" she shrieked in an accusing tone.

"I can! I need one person to hold the light, another to hold the champs and one to suction the blood away. It'll be me doing the surgery," he assured her.

"Fine!" she moaned.

"Good. I'll come and find you when we're ready. Don't eat or drink anything from now on, not even water, understand?"

"Yes! Will you pass me my fucking cloths please!"

Albus handed her back her trousers and top.

"Why haven't you been to see Aurora? She's got a fever you know, if you've got medical knowledge then -"

Albus turned and stormed out of the cabin without a word. He wasn't going to see Aurora.

_**The Temple**_

_**London, England**_

_**January 12**__**th**___

_**2023 A.D.**_

Hugo was sitting in a chair across from the bed that Lily lay on. Her knee was heavily bandaged and she was a still as a statue. They hadn't had time to clean the dirt off her until Mathis had set her leg, since then, Hugo hadn't left her side.

He was exhausted. Not because the day had been long and full of manual labor but because he was emotionally exhausted. Exhausted from keeping the images and thoughts that would only do damage out of his head. Exhausted from the adrenaline that had overtaken his body during the tunnel fight. He was just plan exhausted.

His eyes were becoming heavy but he was determined to stay away, just in case she woke up and started to panic. He would be there to comfort her.

"Hey."

The voice from behind him made Hugo jump. He spun around, almost falling off the chair. Jared was standing in front of him.

"Sorry," he said holding his hands up, "you can take a break if you like, I'll stay with her," he offered.

Hugo looked back at his cousin for a second then nodded his head. His throat was dry and sharp and he was still covered head to toe in dust and dirt.

"I'll go get a drink or something, cheers," he said before walking out of the lab.

He was so thankful that the Cleric's had tapped into a water pipe that led directly to a reservoir, years before they had ever arrived. It meant that they had non-stop, clean water, but they nevertheless tested it on regular occasions.

He walked around the main hall and headed for the quarantine area near the holding cells. It had both normal and pressure showers that they could use to clean their members if they got worried about some kind of contamination or if they ran into an Anomaly that had a viral ability.

He got to the large shower cubicle's towards the end of the room, but when it came to taking off his cloths and armor, he just didn't bother. He simply stepped into the shower and turned the cold water on which started blasting him in the face. The water that fell off his cloths became a yellowish-brown soapy color and drifted into the drain. Then the blood started to mix in with it and it because a very dark brown.

Although the cold water seemed to wake him up a bit, it also seemed to erode the blocks that he'd put up in his own mind. Suddenly his head was filled with the images of Lily being crushed by thirty tonnes of bricks and finding her broken body on the tracks. He thought about his father, that momentary fleeting look, right before he disappeared behind an explosion. The fear on his mothers face as she was pulled away from her children by soldiers...

He got the distant memory of the whole family together. Long before the Prophecy or the Colossus, back when they were still young and free and happy. That was when he collapsed and fell against the wall. He buried his head deep within his arms and started to cry.

These tears were long overdue.

He could stop the words from repeating in his head. em"I'm never gonna see my father again...I'm never gonna see my father again..."/em it was simply too much. He was just a child. A sixteen year old boy that had never been so scared in his entire life and couldn't stop crying. He wanted to scream out for his parents. He wanted them to swoop in and wrap him up in their arms and tell him that everything was going to be fine, but they wouldn't.

"Hugo?" a soft voice caused him to look up.

Amelia was looking at him like she had never seen him before.

"Yeah?" he took a deep breath, determined not to show weakness in front of her. Luckily the water from the shower hid his tears.

"Are you all right?" she asked in an unusually caring tone.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he couldn't stop his voice from shaking as he spoke.

Amelia stepped forward and moved under the same cold water as him. She crouched down and sat against the same shower wall next to him and put her arm around him.

It only took a second of her holding him tightly before the tears began to run from his eyes again. His defenses broke down and he started to sob once again.

"I thought she was gonna die..." he choked.

"She's gonna be fine," Amelia whispered.

"I can't watch her die again..."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"You weren't there...you didn't s-see...I watched...I watched her get crushed by the rubble..." he cried, somehow hypnotized by the thousands of water droplets dancing into the air in front of him, "I couldn't protect her...I can't watch that again..."

"She's gonna be fine, Hugo."

"It's was always me and her, you know...everyone else got to go to Hogwarts...we got left behind, we hated being left behind...It was always us..." he managed to say. "I don't know what I'd do without her...how do you do it Amelia?"

"Do what?"

"Be the way you are...untouchable..."

"My brother is practically indestructible...but if you think that doesn't mean that I get scared shitless every time we get into a life or death situation, then you are seriously mistaken! I'm miss him...and I am so scared for him right now..." Hugo's fear seemed to be infecting her and bringing out the nightmarish images that she had been locking away for a long time now, "I am _not_ untouchable!"

"Here," Hugo's shaky hands dug around into his inside pocket on his jacket. After a second he brought out a small hooped piece of metal.

"What's that?" she asked.

"It's an earring."

"An earring?" she chuckled sadly.

"Those guys that grabbed me at King's Cross? When we were fighting in the car...I yanked this out of his ear...then, when it was all over...I found it on the side of the road. I just...picked it up and put it in my pocket..." he rubbed his face with his free hand, "it sounds kinda screwed up but...it just didn't feel right to leave it there...that...that was the first time...I ever really thought...I was gonna die..."

Amelia couldn't stop her eyes from filling with the same fearful tears that were running down his face and being mixed in with the dirty water.

"I mean...I was there in London when that big fucked up werewolf thing was there but that didn't count...Albus was the one putting his life on the line then, not me. King's Cross...that was when I truly thought that...I wasn't gonna get out of this one...this was it...but I did..."

"You were so brave, Hugo," Amelia sobbed, "you never stopped fighting..."

"I wasn't fighting...I was panicking...I was screaming and crying..." he admitted.

She held him more tightly.

"I'm not strong enough to do this...I'm not a hero! I'm not a soldier!" he cried.

"Hugo...being strong...being a soldier isn't about being fearless and untouchable," she explained quietly, "it's about being terrified and and not knowing what to do...but doing it anyway. It's about knowing that your friends are watching out for you, because you're watching out for them. Heroes and soldiers are two very different things, Hugo...heroes get breaks and happily-ever-afters...soldiers get more of the same or something even worse. But they can take it...not because they're fearless, but because they can be scared and still take it. Soldiers get scared, see terrible things, hurt and cry and face things that nobody can ever really understand unless they faced them too...and then, they can get up the next day and do it all over again! That what being a soldier means! You...are a soldier! You're stronger than you understand Hugo..."

She took hold of the hand that was still clutching the little metal earing. She opened his palm and pick it up, examining it with teary eyes for a second.

"Go ahead, you keep it..." Hugo said, his voice still shaky.

She opened his palm up again, placed the earing back in it, then close his hand around it.

"That was the same day I kissed you wasn't it?" she smiled.

That sentence couldn't stop him from doing the same.

"Yeah, it was..."

She gentle reached up and turned his face towards her, moved it and pressed her lips to his. This kiss wasn't like the last. That one had been nothing be an adrenaline fueled celebration that they were both still alive. This one had meaning behind it. She had always known that Hugo wasn't just the hormone driven idiot that he like to make himself out to be. That was his defense against anything that scared him.

Inside he had true heart and love and strength and she hated watching him doubt that.

As their mouths moved together and tongues rolled around each others, they actually felt slightly better. It wasn't that this show of feelings towards each other made them believe that everything was going to be just fine, because they knew it wasn't, but there was something else there.

Sometimes, the best thing that can happen to someone lost in the darkness is to know that there's someone in there with them, who's just as lost as they are.


	5. First Come, First Severed

_The Maltov_

_Atlantic Ocean_

_69 miles west of Westport, Ireland._

_January 12__h_

_2023 A.D._

"Lincoln, I'm going to need you to assist me," Albus spelled out what was going to need to be done for the surgery to be successful, "James, there's gonna be a lot of blood, I need you to siphon as much away as possible, Rose, I'm gonna need light, make sure you keep your wand lit at all times."

They were sitting in the galley that was now lined with green glow sticks. Lynx had decided to skip the briefing. The idea of Albus cutting her open and fiddling with her insides was enough to make her uncomfortable, but hearing the little details would have made her even more ill.

Rose was already starting to look a little queasy. Healing cuts and broken bones was one thing, playing around with a persons guts while they're still alive is another. Lincoln seemed all business. Maybe it was because he knew how much Lynx meant to Aurora or maybe had just seen so many nasty things in his life that he just wasn't fazed anymore.

James sat in the darkness, a pale green glow illuminating the solemn look on his face. He had refused to even look at Albus since he walked in. Just because Albus was actually talking to them again, didn't make it any easier for his brother to accept the hollow man in front of him.

Albus quickly looked over the various tools that had been gathered for the procedure. There were two scalpels, three pairs of forceps, several tissues and a pair of metal forks that had been turned into make-shift clamps.

He turned to Rose. "What to go ask our patient to join us?"

Rose nodded and went for the door. A few minutes later she returned with Lynx who was looking just as pissed off as when she left. Rose was staring at her with concern and trying to offer reassuring words. "Every thing's gonna be fine Lynx. When you wake up, you'll be fine.

Lynx didn't respond. She just walked over to the table and looked at the instruments.

"Clothes," Albus said simply.

Lynx huffed then began getting undressed. The sight of her exposed body was enough to break James out of his unhappiness and he stared shamelessly until she caught him and flashed a warning look. A lot of people that knew Lynx well had found themselves forgetting just how beautiful she was since she was technically off limits the male species.

It was ironic that she had the kind of body that most men would pine over in magazines and yet she only had eyes of women. Her DD chest, slim defined waist and smooth legs was enough to make any man blush, but in this room her attractiveness was moot. Lincoln looked at her as a little sister, Rose saw her as friend in need, James had been at odds with her for most of his Hogwarts life and Albus wasn't even sure if he could experience sexual feelings anymore.

The idea that he might now be impotent as well as numb to pain wasn't something he liked to think about.

She held her head high and denied her own embarrassment as she stood in front of them in her dark purple underwear.

"You can keep the bra on, but knickers are gonna have to come off," Albus stated.

"What?!" Lynx growled through her teeth.

"The incision needs to be made right here," he indicated the right side of his stomach, just above his groin, "take em off!"

She glared at him for a second then turned around and slipped them off.

"Wonderful. Now everyone on this ship has seen me naked!" she hissed to herself.

"On the table," Albus ordered.

Rose's cheeks went slightly flush as she caught an accidental glance and she turned away as Lynx lay down. She cringed as her bare back touched the cold metal.

"Rose."

Rose nodded to Albus and pulled out her wand. She waved it a few times and muttered an incantation causing heavy ropes to appear around Lynx's wrists locking her to the table. She did the same for her feet as Lincoln put a small towel over her private region.

"Those aren't too tight are they?" Rose worried.

Lynx just shook her head. She just wanted this to be over with.

"Now comes the bad news," Albus said without emotion causing Lynx's eyes to go wide, "I looked, but couldn't find a general anesthetic anywhere on board."

"What?!" Lynx barked.

"So, now we have a few options," Albus continued, "Lincoln tells me that you found a big stash of Heroine in the hold, but I doubt you want us to shoot you up with that."

"You so much as come near me with that shit and I'll -"

"We could stun you," Albus continued ignoring Lynx's threat, "but that's only temporary and you'd probably wake up during the procedure. So really, our best option is just to hit you."

"Hit her?" Rose squeaked.

"Him me?!" Lynx yelled.

"Yep. A well placed punch will push your brain against your skull and you probably won't wake up until tomorrow."

Lynx banged the back of her head against the table in frustration. "Fine! Do it!"

"Okay. James, hit her."

"Why me? Why can't you do it?" James whined.

"Because, I'd probably break her skull," he said quickly, "since London...I don't know...I'm...I'm getting stronger."

Everyone looked at him with equal confusion and shock.

"When were you planning on telling us this?" Lincoln asked angrily.

"I just told you."

James pressed his lips together and looked away. Suddenly the fact that there was an incredibly beautiful naked women on the table didn't matter. This was just one more thing that reminded him that his brother was becoming some kind of inhuman creature.

"Hit her James," Albus repeated, ignoring his sadness.

James walked over to Lynx without looking at his brother. "Sorry about this," he said quietly.

"No you're not!" Lynx hissed.

"I don't _want_ to hurt you Lynx!" James whined sincerely.

"Will you just shut up and hit me!"

_WHACK!_

Lynx head flew backwards as the punch connected, but shot back up a second later. She looked even more enraged than before.

"Ah, you fucking pussy! Hit me better than -"

_WHACK!_

The second punch put her out for the count. James actually looked quite startled for a second before rubbing his knuckles.

"She's got a hard head!" he groaned trying to shake the pain from his hand.

Albus checked her pupils to make sure that she was definitely out cold. Once he was convinced he picked up the scalpel and moved over to her stomach.

Rose lit her wand and held it over head while James prepared his wand for the blood. Very slowly and simply, Albus tapped a section of her stomach before finding the spot he was looking for. He was about to start cutting when his hair fell down, over his eyes. It was longer than it had ever been now.

He brushed it behind his ears and went back to the spot. As he moved the scalpel closer, the lit from Rose's wand started to flicker from her hand shaking. She gulped and tried to steady herself.

The tip of the blade touched Lynx's skin and a second later a line of warm crimson blood spread from the cut. He ignored it as James sucked it up with his wand. Albus continued to cut a small line about four inches long across. A few seconds later, Lincoln moved in with the clamps. He carefully threaded them into the cut then gently pulled them apart.

This time the blood flowed heavily from the wound. So much so, that James was finding it difficult to clear.

Suddenly the wand light that was overhead fell to the floor followed by the sound of a splash and a groan. Rose had just lost her lunch all over the ground.

She quickly picked herself up, wiping her mouth and looking pale. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Feel better?" Albus asked.

She nodded and held the light up again.

Albus continued like it had never happened but James was forced to pull his top up and over his nose. The smell of Rose's vomit was quite off putting. That and the fact that Lynx's intestines were now exposed and Albus was carefully navigating bloody tissue and muscle. All in all, James thought that he might puke as well. He'd certainly never look at Lynx the same way again.

_**The Temple**_

_**London, England**_

_**January 25**__**th**___

_**2023 A.D.**_

Lily hobbled her way across the main hall of the Temple. Although her leg was almost as good as new, it was still stiff and weak.

"How you feeling?" she asked Dominique, who's headaches had become so bad they they were actually causing her to loose sleep.

The once cute and fun young girl that would grow to be an incredible attractive women because of her Veela heritage now looked like a homeless child. Her hair was messy and dirty, her clothes hadn't been washed in weeks and her eyes were shadowed by huge black bags. Her angelic face now had a look of pure despair on it.

Dominique just shook her head as a response to Lily's question and she went back to rubbing her temples.

Lily decided to give her some privacy and walked away. Unfortunately, privacy for Dom was impossible at this point. Peoples thoughts would move in an out of her mind every few seconds. Everything she tried, failed to stop them.

She could hear Mathis making calculated assessments of their situation, her sisters worries about the food stocks, Teddy's concern for everyone there. The worst came from two sources. Fish and his constant recaps of horrible things that had happened to him while in the army and in prison and the back and forth images and ideas from Hugo and Amelia.

Both of them were either busy fearing for their lives and the lives of the others or entertaining their deepest sexual desires. Being exposed to every facet of someones life wasn't easy. She had never even had a boyfriend and yet she was forced to witness Hugo's fantasies and even feel Amelia's thoughts while masturbated, which she did surprisingly often.

It wasn't fair. She didn't want to be an Anomaly and she certainly didn't want to be in this situation. She missed having to worry about homework, popularity and boys. She wanted to go back to when those were her most pressing issues, not running for her life, living on food rations and cowering in the darkness.

Her unstable ability was making matters much worse. She could already hear people thinking about what she might be like when she woke up. How much of a benefit it would be when she had her powers under control, but more than that, they worried about how she would behave when she woke up.

Those thoughts came from Athena who couldn't help recalling her own behavior. That unending desire to have a Albus's hands all over her. To feel him inside her. Then she would start thinking about their encounter in the ministry. Albus had actually cheated on Aurora and had sex with Athena. She hated herself for not making it last longer, but inside she knew that it was nothing but a physical experience to him.

He didn't love her. He was just scared that she might side with his brother and wanted to secure her loyalty by fucking her. It made her sad. She hated that everyone though that it was just lust. No one believed that she truly loved Albus or that she even deserved him. Dominique believed though. Her thoughts and feeling for Albus were too strong to be a lie.

It made Dom yearn to be loved the same way that Athena yearned to be loved by Albus. To be swept off her feet and taken away from this horrible nightmare like in a fairytale. But she knew it would never happen. Even if the war ended tomorrow, she wouldn't be able to go back to her old life. She had seen too much.

"Hey, you're suppose to be resting!"

Jared's thoughts echoed his words. Somewhere in the Temple he had obviously just run into Lily. The concern and sincerity was evident. Unfortunately, that's all their was. Jared felt like he owed Lily for saving him, while Lily had started to believe that he was attracted to her.

She was trying very hard not to think about it but it was in her head nevertheless. Dominique was getting a bit worried for her. Lily was starting to like the idea that Jared wanted to be with her and when the truth came out, it would just be yet another strike at her heart. She had already endured so many, that it could be the one that shattered it completely.

"I'm fine. Mathis said I should walk around a bit anyway."

Lily's happiness to see him was evident.

"Well, don't over do it," Jared warned.

Their thoughts faded into the background noise of Dominique's mind as yet another sexual image entered her head. This time it was from Webster who was staring shamelessly at Athena's chest. That was replaced by a sudden wave of fear an embarrassment as he had obviously been caught.

Then something very strange happened. Suddenly, as if someone had flicked a switch inside her mind, all the noise and images vanished. Her headache disappeared and was replaced by a soothing comfortable warm feeling.

"Hello Dominique," a cool female voice from behind her said.

Dom spun around in a fright. In front of her was a girl that couldn't have been more than fifteen years old. She had beautiful silken hair that was as dark as coal and smooth milk chocolate skin. She smiled.

Fear hit Dom hard. This girl was not one of the survivors.

"Who are you?" her voice shook as she asked.

"My name is Aria," she said simply.

"How did you get here?!"

"I'm not here," Aria smiled.

"What do you want?" Dom asked now looking more confused than frightened.

"I need your help."

"Help with what?"

"Fixing a mistake I made a long time ago. You'll understand in a few minutes," she smiled again.

"What happens in a few m...minutes..." Dom's eyes started to glaze over. Her vision was blurring and she suddenly felt incredibly hot and sweaty.

A few seconds later, she collapsed to the floor and started shaking violently. The last thing she heard before completely blacking out where her sisters terrified cries for help.

_**Malfoy Maison**_

_**Istanbul, Turkey**_

_**August 4th**_

_**2100 A.D.**_

"It was all a lie..." the words slid out of Anya's mouth as she stared at the floor.

"No! It wasn't a lie Anya! This is your family and they love you," Dawn tried but Anya wouldn't look at her, "baby, we did this to protect you."

"You just let me go on believing that I was a witch...and-and that one day I'd get to go to Hogwarts and..." She yelled. Tears started to fall down her cheeks as she realized all her dreams had just come crashing down.

"We had to! I couldn't let people know that you were the niece of the worlds most dangerous terrorist!"

At that moment, probably because of the shouting, Scorpius walked in. He looked frightened and concerned and his eyes immediately found Anya. For a second her sadness seemed to beg him to told her and whisper that everything was going to be fine, but then it vanished and was replaced by a look of betrayal.

Violet and Molly had never said anything about this. They had never done anything to suggest that they had another sister. Then it hit her so hard and fast that it didn't feel real. Dawn wasn't Scorpius's daughter, which meant she wasn't his granddaughter. She wasn't even a Malfoy. She didn't know who her real family was.

"You're not my grandfather! YOU ALL LIED!" she screamed and ran out of the room.

"Anya wait!" Scorpius pleaded and ran off after her. "Please! Anya stop!"

She did but only so she could spin around and look at him with red, tearful and angry eyes.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!"

"We wanted you to have a normal life, normal childhood! We didn't want our pasts to hurt your future!" he tried.

"I'm not going to have a childhood! I'm going to change and get older! And everyone will know I'm a freak!"

"You're not a freak Anya!" Scorpius shouted, "and this is still your family! We love you!"

"YOU'RE NOT MY FAMILY! YOU LIED!" she cried as a new wave of tears broke out.

"We are your family Anya! Dawn may not be my daughter by birth, but I love her and have protected her since she was a baby. You are both as much a part of this family as Rose, Violet, Molly, all of them," he voice was practically begging her to understand.

"Who are my real Grandparents?" she asked in a whisper.

She almost wasn't sure she wanted to know, although she had a suspicion already. It's the only thing hat would explain why Dawn hates Albus so much.

"It doesn't matter. They're dead," her mothers voice said.

She and Dominique had walked up behind Scorpius so quietly that no one had even noticed them.

"It matters! Who are they?!" she demanded.

"Anya, we did this so that you would never have to be apart of that life! The less you know about -"

"TELL ME!"

"She needs to know Dawn," Dominique added quietly.

"Tell me..." Anya's voice shook as tears continued to cascade down her face, "...is Albus my grandfather?"

A haunting silence fell between them while Dawn stared intensely into her daughters eyes.

"No..." Dawn declared in an icy tone, "he's the one that killed your grandfather."


	6. Partisan Politics

_**A/N – Wow. After an 8 month hiatus, there is finally a new chapter of Requiem here! I'm so sorry for the massive delay. I'm going to try and get another chapter out before I restart University in January. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this and big thanks to everyone that has read and reviewed. :D**_

_**Loughborough**_

_**England**_

_**March 2**__**nd**___

_**703 A.D.**_

Cadmus sat a the small decaying table, twisting the round piece of stone in his hand. The rain beat hard against the straw roof of the shack, dripping through in several places. These surroundings suited him.

It was enough to live it but had no life left it in. Just like him. His worn wrinkled face had long matted hair draped over it and the bags under his eyes were so dark, they almost looked like glasses.

He looked like what he craved. Death.

He was broken away from his hypnotized depression by the creaking of the porch floor boards outside the door. Old and weak as he was, he still had no trouble spinning around and pulling his wand.

"Who goes there?!" he yelped in a gravely voice.

There was no answer but the door slowly opened, revealing a figure, hooded and cloaked in the darkness.

"Who are you, what do you want?!" Cadmus asked, the wand trembling in his hand.

"I've come to answer your prays," a cool, alluring female voice responded.

She stepped inside, closing the door behind her. Cadmus was in shock as she removed her hood.

She was exquisitely beautiful. Long golden hair fell over her shoulders and her flawless skin seemed to almost glow.

"Who are you?" Cadmus breathed.

"An angel," she smiled.

She walked into the shack, and slowly sat down at the table. Her eyes moved to what Cadmus was clutching in his free hand.

"It's such a burden, isn't it Cadmus. To be tortured with temptation," she cooed.

"How did you..."

"It doesn't have to be this way you know...she's waiting for you."

Cadmus felt his knees starting to give out. His pounded like a war drum inside his chest.

"I..." he despaired.

"You've suffered long enough, Cadmus. Be with her," she soothed.

Cadmus opened his palm, revealing the Resurrection Stone.

"It's a curse! I never should have created it!" he cried.

"I know, but she doesn't blame you. No one blames you. You will be forgiven," she said, holding out her hand.

Cadmus' mind raced. He didn't know what to do. He'd never told anyone, only his brothers knew about the stone. Maybe she truly was an angel.

Slowly his shaking hand moved out and dropped the stone into her palm.

She stood up and smiled lovingly. "You'll see her soon, Cadmus."

She glided towards the door, a devious grin on her face.

"Wait, what's your name?" he begged.

He had no idea that she had already orchestrated the death of his brother.

"Sophia."

She exited the shack, leaving Cadmus to the despair that would ultimately claim his life.

The Deathly Hallows were changing hands. Everything was going according to plan.

_**The Temple**_

_**London, England**_

_**January 28**__**th**___

_**2023 A.D.**_

"Welcome to the London penthouse," Hugo said as they new group of survivors entered the temple.

"Jesus! This place has been underneath London the whole time?!" Bob one blurted.

"Yep, only the Cleric's knew about it until now."

"Dad?" Scorpius asked looking concerned.

Draco had been silent and even more pale than usual on their way back to the temple. He would look down at his left arm ever few seconds as if he expected it to lash out at him at any moment.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Draco said absently.

"Why are you two still alive?!" Athena's annoyed voice suddenly barked. She marched over, still looking pissed of at the fact they she hadn't been allowed to go out with them.

"Nice to see you two, Sparky," Bob two grinned.

"Don't call me that! Who are all these people?!"

"Tourists," Amelia quipped.

"We got some food as well," Lily said.

Athena just nodded then walked away to go and check on Dominique.

"Don't mind her. She's in a bad mood because we're guarding her like a Horcrux," Hugo explained.

"Why?" the leader, now know as Collins asked.

Hugo pointed to the lights.

"You guys got power?!"

"Yep, thanks to her. She's an anomaly."

"Sweet!" Collins grinned.

"Who's that?" Draco asked, nodded towards the statue.

"That's Illyria. The supposed Goddess of magic," Lily said. "Apparently, she built this place."

"Well, that was nice of her," Bob one said, dumping his gear on the ground.

"Yeah. We'll get you guys set up with places to sleep in a little while. Hugo, run and get Vic for me, tell her to start going through these supplies," Lily commanded.

Hugo nodded and disappeared off down on of the corridors just as Teddy, Jess and Webster appeared. Teddy in particular looked overjoyed to see other survivors but his happiness turned to caution as soon as he laid eyes on Draco.

"Lily, you okay?" Teddy asked, not taking his gaze away from Draco who was once again, staring at his left arm.

"I'm fine, why?"

"Can we talk?"

He and Lily walked away from the group as Jess and Webster started giving introductions and explaining certain things about the temple.

"Draco Malfoy."

"What about him?" Lily shrugged.

"Voldemort has returned and he is a former Death Eater! Tell me you actually thought about that before welcoming him down here!" Teddy hissed in a hushed voice.

"Ex-Death Eater! He carved the damn mark off his own arm!"

"He could be a spy!"

"Well, when Dominique wakes up, she'll be able to tell us that, won't she?" Lily shot back.

"That won't be for weeks! We could all be dead by then!" Teddy snapped in anger.

"We could all be dead tomorrow! I'll chance it," she said folding her arms over her chest. Lily was putting her foot down.

"How can you be certain this he isn't -"

"Because I saw his eyes when Scorpius told him that Voldemort had returned...I've never seen anyone look so terrified in my whole life. He says," she stated before walking away.

Lily went straight to the former lab where Dominique was still deep into her coma. Her hair had already grown about about two inches as had her finger nails. She was beginning to look like the beautiful young woman that they all knew she would eventually become.

Mathis was sitting in the corner, huddled over a stack of partially burnt books and journals, making notes and corrections.

"You found survivors?" he said in an uninterested tone.

"Yeah," she answered, gently stroking Dominique's hand.

"How many?"

"Twenty-three. Got some food as well."

"The whole of Tesco's I hope," Mathis tutted.

"No. But it's better than we were," Lily said.

"Is it? Sounds like we're going to have an even harder time with food than before," Mathis said, closing his book and looking at her. It wasn't difficult to see that he didn't agree with her decision.

"We'll manage. We'll organize more groups to go to the surface and -"

"When? When we're all so hungry that we can't even lift a wand?" Mathis huffed.

"What did you want me to do, leave them there?!" Lily growled.

"No. You should have only brought the most valuable back," Mathis declared.

"My God! Are you completely devoid of humanity?!"

"No, I just have over developed survival skills! And that is exactly what is needed right now!"

"That's what we're doing! Surviving!" Lily yelled.

"No for long! You can bring a hundred people down here, Lily, but unless you can keep them alive, all you're doing is letting them die slower!" Mathis was deadly serious.

"So I should have taken the useful people and left the rest to die?!"

"Yes!"

Lily couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"It's called triage. You have one medic and ten wounded soldiers, you don't bother with the grunts, you operate on the guy from military intelligence and if you've got time, the radio man. The rest, you just give enough morphine to make sure their passing is painless...unless the morphine can't be spared. These are the type of decisions a leader _has_ to make!" Mathis barked, sounding like a Drill Sargent.

Lily blinked and took a step back.

"Whoa, I never said I was the leader!"

"Well, you sure as hell bin' acting like it!"

She was so angry that she could have happily punched Mathis in the mouth at that moment but on the other hand, he had brought up a good point. Nobody had elected her as a leader and yet she had been barking orders and telling people what would and wouldn't happen ever since this whole mess got started. There was only one thing for her to do.

"Fine! Come with me," she spat.

The two of them walked back into the main hall of the temple.

"Everybody, listen up!" Lily shouted. "Athena, come in here please."

She knew Athena could hear her, even though she was on the other side of the temple.

Everyone gathered in front of Lily as Mathis folded his arms looking half bemused, half annoyed. He didn't even bother to look at the faces of the new comers. As far as he was concerned, they were nothing more than an extra burden.

"Mathis," she scathed his name, "has brought up an interesting point. We don't have a leader."

"I thought you were the leader?" Jared said, looking confused.

Mathis rolled his eyes at that comment.

"Well, I don't think it's right for anyone to simply appoint themselves to be in charge of the group, so I think you guys should vote."

"This is ridiculous," Mathis said in frustration. "None of these people know any of us so they can't make an accurate decision on who would be best suited for the job!"

"Well, that's too bad. I suppose it'll be trial and error then!" she shot back.

"You can't just elect a leader, that doesn't work!" Mathis said.

"Well, what then?"

"You elect a leader and an executive leader. The Exo runs the place, but the leader is in charge. Any big decisions come up, they only go ahead if both of them agree. And of course, if something happens to the leader, the Exo takes over and appoints a replacement for himself," Mathis explained.

"Fine! Two leaders, the more the merrier!" Lily said getting even more aggravated by his attitude. "Who do we vote of executive leader?"

For a few seconds nobody spoke. Then, unsurprisingly, Hugo spoke.

"I vote for Amelia."

"Oh, no way! I'm a soldier, not a general," she said, holding her hands up and backing away.

"You've had way more experience with this sort of stuff than we have and you've got superhuman abilities to boot," Hugo said honestly.

"Yeah, but I just did what Sophia said!"

"Okay, one vote for Amelia," Lily said loudly.

"Two. I second Hugo's vote," Athena said, walking over to the group.

"Two...Scorpius?" Lily looked at him.

Scorpius sighed. "I vote for Mathis."

Several pairs of eyes suddenly shot towards him. They couldn't believe what he had just said.

"What?!" Amelia blurted. "Why him?!"

"Because he's the exact opposite of Lily...and I'm going to vote her for leader. Together, they can look at all sides of whats happening," he said simply before looking Lily in the eye. She was stunned. "Besides, you're Al's sister. You're the closest thing to the Colossus we've got."

"I second my son's vote," Draco spoke up with pride as he placed a reassuring hand on Scorpius's shoulder.

"Wait, go back. Your brother is the Colossus?" Collins asked in disbelief.

"_Was_ the Colossus," Mathis corrected. "He's lost his powers and he's gone missing so don't expect him to suddenly show up and save the day."

"He _will_ come back!" Athena hissed, burning a savage look at Mathis.

"Either way, we can't rely on him," Mathis shot back. "We're going to have to take care of ourselves."

"Well, in that case, I agree with these two," Collins said, pointing at Draco and Scorpius. "She's just a kid but she seems to have been doing a pretty good job so far and like he said; she's the closest thing to the Colossus we've got."

"We'll, I was gonna vote for Bob here," Bob one said.

"Well, thank you Bob, I was gonna vote for me two," Bob two grinned.

"But, having a Potter in charge makes me feel a lot safer so, you get my vote hun," Bob one gave her a thumbs up.

"Agreed. Command me my queen!" Bob two bowed.

Amelia, Athena and Lily just rolled their eyes at the pair.

"Raise your hand if you agree," Teddy said.

Amazingly almost all of the new comers put their hands up. They were voting a girl that wasn't even sixteen yet to be their leader and it had nothing to do with her age or experience. The truth was, they seemed to derive some kind of comfort from knowing that, in some way, the Colossus was still with them.

Unfortunately, this also meant that Mathis was second in command and Lily already knew that it wouldn't be long before the two of them clashed over something or other. She wasn't worried though. She knew that if push came to shove, she could rely on Athena, Amelia, Scorpius, Hugo and everyone else that was close to her to back her up. That also meant that she had the most powerful people down there on her side.

Still, Mathis was sneaky and cunning. She was sure he'd try and find a way to tip the scales so that his orders would be followed just as readily as hers.

After the vote, Lily went back to check on Dom. She sat with her cousin for a while, wondering whether or not she would actually be up to the task of looking after these people. Like Mathis ha said; tough decisions would have to be made. That included sacrifices.

_**The Maltov**_

_**Atlantic Ocean**_

_**98 miles north-west of Westport, Ireland.**_

_**February 3**__**rd**___

_**2023 A.D.**_

The current was getting strong and stronger and now the ship was starting to be tugged north towards Iceland. The air was already starting to get colder which meant the rusted old ship would follow suit. There was very little wind so the seas were calm as ever giving it an eerie silence.

There weren't even any birds or outside sounds. Only the occasion slash of water hitting the side of the ship.

Inside, everyone had taken to wrapping up warm in whatever they could find. James and Rose were now wearing Russian mechanics overalls that they had found in engineering. Lincoln, being an Anomaly could stand the cold a lot better than they could so it didn't really bother him. Likewise with Albus who couldn't feel anything at that moment.

Lynx was wrapped up in blankets and confined to a bunk while her surgical wounds healed. As far as they could tell, it had been a success and she was recovering quickly. She was sleeping peacefully when Al came to check on her.

He didn't bother waking her. He just gently lifted the blankets off and carefully pushed aside her cloths. The incision he had made a few days ago was already starting to look like nothing more than a nasty scratch. Thanks to Rose's talents with healing spells, there had been no infection and it seemed as if she would be back on her feet very soon.

Satisfied, he covered her up with the blankets, making sure she was nice and warm.

"So, do you trust me yet?" a familiar voice asked.

Albus turned around to see his father standing there, acting completely at ease.

"No. I don't trust figments of my imagination," Al mumbled.

"Who says I'm a figment?"

"I do. You're dead. I watched you die," Al stated.

"Doesn't mean I'm not here," Harry smiled. "If I'm a figment of your imagination, how did I know about Lynx?"

"Something in my subconscious probably picked up on the fact that something was wrong with her. That just translated into this delusion."

"Really. You think so?" Harry said, taking a seat next to Lynx's bunk. "Then, the door made of light, your precognitive dreams...all of that must be a hallucination as well."

"Well, I have suffered a lot of mental anguish," Al said, getting annoyed.

"I know," Harry looked down at the follow in sorrow. "Loosing a child...I can't imagine...it's what terrified me more than anything...but Aurora has suffered the same loose. She needs you, Albus."

"I don't care," Albus growled.

"You can't blame her for what happened!"

"Watch me!"

"Albus?"

Al spun around to see Lynx looking groggily around the room with a confused look on her face. "Who are you talking to?"

He turned to see that his father had vanished. "No one."

Lynx shrugged before putting her head back on her pillow and closing her eyes. Albus stormed out of her cabin, seething with anger and thoughts of Aurora. He would never forgive her.

What he didn't realize was that only a few doors away, she had just opened her eyes.


End file.
